Mother’s day is a day set aside to celebrate the woman that gave you life. Mothers do deserve their mighty status!

Mother is the woman from whose body you issued. Without her efforts you could not have drawn in the magic of your breath. Every single opportunity you experience arises from her carriage of you within her womb.

Even Mothers who die before meeting the child they gave life too live large in their offspring’s psyche. Mothers, who through the many modes of misadventure feel forced to give their child up for adoption, never cease to wonder and hope on behalf of their child. The umbilicus is made of more than flesh.

For most, this impassioned provision of your very life is the first of many vast and invaluable gifts. From the moment of your birth, indeed perhaps from the moment of your conception, she is forever changed as her identity and aspirations become merged with the dreams of her children.

Another fundamental gift that Mothers give their children is patience. This is no small thing since of the many things that can hurt a human impatience is one of the worst. Impatience provides the impression that people are unwelcome and unworthy, and as such is insidiously damaging.

Witness a mother calmly swallowing her own exhaustion and distress as she soothes her screaming baby. Observe a Mother ambling at a snails pace towards some destination with a toddler as said child insists on walking their way. See a mother with her teenager wisely waiting till their more than occasional rude rejection matures.

Mothers see their children more clearly than anyone else will and accordingly never give up on us. Whatever the strength of your self-esteem, it is your Mothers unassailable love for you that is its source.

I contend that each mother is a Goddess, yet I acknowledge they are also human. Know that they have always done their best within pressures and constraints that you can only guess at. Honour your mother as you ought honour yourself. See the wings of an angel upon her back and so grow to know you are like her.

Martin Hunter Jones is an honorary life member of the Australian Counselling Association. He has a Counselling and Hypnotherapy practice on the Northern Beaches. Phone 9973 4997.