a blessing for mother’s day

Bless all who mother,
holding us in their arms,
in the quiet corners of their hearts.

The weight of small hands in yours,
the joy that catches you off guard,
the quiet power of being needed–
and the love that makes you braver
than you were.

Bless all the exhausted and overextended,
the ones holding it all together and
the ones hanging on for dear life.
The ones doing the best they can
with what they have,
and all of those learning to forgive
or let go or start anew.

Bless all who grieve,
missing a mother or a child,
or a relationship that wasn’t what it
should have been.

And bless all those for whom mothering is
complicated, heartbreaking, or incomplete.

May there be tenderness today.
Enough to honor what’s beautiful.
Enough to name what still hurts.
Enough to hold the complexity
without needing to tidy it up.

And may love–real, honest, ordinary love–
be what finds you.

Today and every day after.