Mother's Day should not so much be about buying cards and gifts for mothers, as about paying forward the wisdom (or mother wit) we receive from mothers. To fully understand that invites us to explore two questions: (1) How do we define who is a mother? And (2) How can we identify what is true mother wisdom?
    Mother's Day, as we know it, began as part of the peace movement in 1870, then known as Mother’s Peace Day Observance. Mother’s Day was established in response to ravages of Civil War impacting husbands, sons and daughters across Union and Confederacy states. Spearheaded by Julia Ward Howe, abolitionist, women's suffragist, and peace activist, the aim was national and global peace. Raising their children only to die in war was a deep and painful reproductive loss felt by hundreds of thousands of mothers. They were resolute to do whatever they could, appealing to the hearts and minds of political leaders. Since its powerful, transformative beginnings, Mother’s Day became sentimentalized so that the real issues of reproductive loss, peace, and justice could be moved to the back burner, and eventually moved out of the kitchen. 

​Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.  ~ Carl Jung