And there it went again: Sunday past was Mother’s day. I kept deliberately quiet about it this year and I’m not sure really why. Perhaps because I’ve said so much about it already.
Like here:
I had no urge to write or post or send texts or pics to mother friends. My mother was visiting so that was special, to have some time with her on Mother’s Day but for the rest… it was quite an ordinary day.
Here are some pics. From left: The day before Mother’s Day (with my mother, celebrating my oldest daughter’s birthday, actual Mother’s Day with my middle daughter, (thanks hockey mother who took pic) the day after Mother’s Day with my co-mother
And then there was this that I happened to see in my diary yesterday. Not only the handwritten message but the simple statement of Daphne du Maurier.
The simplest and most sensible mother’s day post I saw was the FB post of author, Deon Maas: (Witboy in Berlin)
What’s a house without a mother.
And then I came across this shared post just minutes ago from my hero Alain de Botton.
And yet there may be immense skill, joy and nobility involved in what we are up to: in bringing up a child to be reasonably independent and balanced; in maintaining a good-enough relationship with a partner over many years despite areas of extreme difficulty; in keeping a home in reasonable order; in getting a lot of early nights; in doing a not very exciting or well-paid job responsibly and cheerfully; in listening properly to other people and, in general, in not succumbing to madness or rage at the paradox and compromises involved in being alive.
I’ve often considered that those who do not as he says, rage at the paradox and compromises involved in being alive , should be the most joyous.
And I know not of a more complete, complicated joy than to mother.
And with this cutest pic, I’ve now completed my blog for mother’s day.
Niki Malherbe 