Mothers' Day

I'm not really crazy about Mothers' Day. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it follows a little too closely on my own mother's birthday and I am always at a loss as to what to get her for any present-giving occasion--much less two in a row (and those in the approximate vicinity of Easter, which can be yet another gift occasion.) Complicating things even further is the fact that it used to coincide as well with my mother-in-law's birthday. Four tough presents in the space of two weeks or so used to make me distinctly non-celebratory.

Of course it is nice to be wined and dined (or more likely, brunched) on occasion, and I do appreciate the cards and notes and the recognition from my own family. But what I value even more (and I suspect I'm not alone in this) is the occasional email from my daughters, the phone calls, the recipe requests, and the offhand acknowledgements every now and then that they still need something from me. It may just be a grammar or spelling question, how to do some repair, an opinion on something--or even a request to watch the cat for a weekend or keep an eye out for a particular item they've been looking for at the store, but it's reassuring to be needed--even in a small way-- by two young women who are so competent and so demonstrably un-needy.

It's paradoxical that after all those years of cultivating independence in my children, one of my brightest treasures is the occasional trace of the children they used to be, children who needed their mom.