Good morning from the Tree House where I have just been served my menu du jour by youthful decree.

My selection includes omelet with wild onions, cranberry juice, and berries.  Brunch will be served promptly at 9:30 they inform me.  I particularly like the wax seal with my youngest child’s initial, a royal touch.  The herbs grow wild at the corner of the property.

Indeed, I feel like the Queen herself.  And, my young messengers have done Emerson justice, in “giving a portion of thyself.”  (The Only Gift Is A Portion of Thyself, Emerson)  For my own mother this year, I shared a cherished story.  Recovering from spinal surgery and depressed from the medication and food, she told me several Buddhist folktales.  My retelling is posted under May’s link on the right, “More Than A Vietnamese Folktale.”

Anna Jarvis helped establish Mother’s Day as we know it in 1908 and Woodrow Wilson declared it an official holiday in 1914. But recognizing mothers was a practice going back to classical times when the Romans and Greeks would celebrate mother goddesses during festivals.  “The clearest modern precedent for Mother’s Day is the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.” (History.com – Mother’s Day)

And the distinction is significant, Mothering Sunday versus Mother’s Day.  A grammatical note about our holiday is the singular form of Mother, or Mother’s not Mothers’.  Anna Jarvis said “Mother’s should be a singular possessive, for each family to honor its mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers of the world.”

So, call your mother.  Or better, write her a letter.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

I love  you dearly.