Today we honor mothers - those that have passed on, those who nurture us today and those mothers yet to be. I was thinking about what my mother and grandmother mean to me and was searching for someone else’s words to help me. I remembered not a poem or prayer, but a book that I read and reread to help me along: The Wind is My Mother by Bear Heart with Molly Larkin.

When I was old enough to understand it, my mother told me this story: “When you were a tiny baby, you got sick and we thought you were going to die. You had a real high fever and I sat in a rocking chair and rocked you all night long. Neighbors wanted to relieve me and take you, but I wouldn’t let them, I just held you in my arms all night. Early in the morning, just before the sun was coming up, I took you outside and, facing East, dedicated your life to our Creator. I said, ‘If You let this child live, I will do my best to be a good mother. I will raise him knowing something about You and Your great love, so that he can walk this earth and be of help to people. He will be Your feet, Your eyes, Your voice, Your hands. However You can use him, I dedicate him to You now.’” After she came back in the house, the fever broke and I got well (144-145).

Thank you, Mothers. May God bless you and keep you.