Honor Mother’s Day in Your Own Words

As it’s Mother’s Day today, we thought you might like to know a little bit about the woman who pushed for its official establishment as a holiday. Her name was Anna Jarvis, and based on the stories about her that have endured from her time (the turn of the 19th century) to ours, she could be rather…difficult. Notably, she opposed greeting cards as a Mother’s Day gift because she saw them as “a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write.” Ouch.

Surely she never stumbled upon the perfect card, then – greeting cards can be funny or touching, colorful and fun, and sometimes they seem to perfectly capture your feelings. But today, we’d like you to consider the point buried within Anna’s rather unkind words: speak from your heart. Mother’s Day is an opportunity to say thank you to the woman or women who made you who you are – whether or not they gave birth to you or anyone else. This is the day to tell them how they make you feel, and how you feel about them. So this year, feel free to give a card, but add your own words to it, even if they’re not as clever or pithy or flowery as you’d like. If the kids in your life have purchased cards to give, encourage them to do the same – to write or draw something special inside. If there’s not enough room on the card, maybe you even write that letter Anna pretty much challenged us all to write. And if the woman you’d like to thank is no longer with us, you can still write the letter – or find some time to sit in the quiet and write the words on your heart.

Now, Anna also decided, after beginning Mother’s Day by giving out white carnations at her mother’s church (a Methodist church, by the way – our pushy, “difficult” world-changer was a Methodist!), that she disapproved of flowers being part of the holiday. Here we have to take exception – flowers are a lovely gesture, and if you’d like yours to be edible, here’s a recipe for a bouquet of yummy cookie flowers. We know it says “easy” right in the name, but if you’d like easy to become easier, feel free to use pre-made sugar cookie dough and pre-made icing. After all, you’ve got to find time to write your Mother’s Day letter. 😉

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the kind, loving, nurturing women who make this world a better place. Feel free to share some of your gratitude on our Facebook page!