Sunday, May 14, 2017

HAPPY MOTHERS' AND FATHERS' DAY

HAPPY MOTHERS' AND FATHERS' DAY! A great mother is God's greatest gift. Mothers' divine greatness is matched by having a great father. I speak of the 'spirit of mothering' and the 'spirit of fathering,' but not exclusively, nor necessarily, natural. I was blessed with both, the same spiritual and natural parents, as were my seven younger siblings. My two older siblings: our half-brother and our half-sister, were born to my father's first wife, who died during childbirth; are heirs to our parents' conjoined spiritual and familial love. So too was another half-sister of my father, older than me, whose mother did not marry daddy, whom I first met at age 35. Mothers bring you here. That act of parturition is extraordinary enough, unto itself. But, hardly compares to that which follows our births. From out of the womb of Mother, we are cast into the womb of the world for a longer period of gestation whose length and hardships vary, person to person, until we are 'reborn' with God, through the delivery of death . Today's annual interregnum in May in America is known as "Mothers' Day;" it may be similarly known and celebrated elsewhere on the globe. We celebrate it, today, this Sunday, by saluting our moms with flowers, with poetry, with songs, religious services, meals, clothes, parades, gifts galore, concerts, for all that she has done for us, to get us here! Nothing is too good for our dear mothers, or frankly, dear fathers; since but for fathers, there could be no natural mothers, nor any of us, whether we knew either in life. I insert Fathers into Mothers' Day, since such insertions segued to us! I celebrate both on each day. And on each unique calendar holiday set aside to each, discreetly, I do the same. Mothers are the sine qua non of Fathers. Fathers are the sine qua non of Mothers. Both made us. I cannot, do not, speak of one without speaking of the other, nor think of one without thinking about the other, nor celebrate one without celebrating the other, nor loving one without loving the other. My parents meld as one in my life as one, though both are now dead, their joint labors and legacies exist in me, persist in me, subsist in me. In my progeny: spiritual, physical, social, intellectual, emotional, all! Thanks 🙏 Momma and Daddy for blessing me; for blessing us, with life, with love , with opportunities! And thank God that I had you both! Amen 🙏!