Mother's Day - Where the Heart Reigns!

A Mother's Day greeting to all of my visitors who are Moms, Grandmothers, soon-to-be Moms! A Mother's Day wish to all who have their Moms with them. Today, I'll be celebrating Mother's Day with the family indulging in a great, decadent hamburger meal at Mike's; and behind the happiness and joy, behind the bright sky, lush green grass, the brilliant sun, I'll be saying a prayer in sorrow - pathos and compassion - for all the Moms and Dads, sisters and brothers, and family and loved ones mourning the loss of the students and faculty in Norris Hall at Virginia Tech. My own mother passed over much too young for me, twenty years ago. The loss never lessens nor is it meant to lessen. I have stopped bursting into tears for no reason when driving toward my home at the beach where my mother lived nearby; I have stopped seeing her image in the brown chair where she sat just two weeks before a stroke took her life. To those who listen to the words of friends - it is time to move on with your life; you have to stop grieving now, I say, "Crap!" Life has a way of making us "get on with it" but never buy the "it's time to stop grieving" guilt trip. Grieve and grieve some more - it is the only pathway into life; the only pathway between life and death; it is the only pathway that enables us to be "with" our loved ones. And for places in the heart where the pain is too great: for those who suffer loss and unbearable grief, please see Love triumphs over death. My readers know that Gates of Vienna is an outstanding blog but not all of us know of the human side, the side that brings the Gates of Vienna to us daily without fail. Dymphna has shared a loss with all of the readers of the Gates and on this day, I hope she will forgive me passing her words along to all Mothers grieving today. God bless you all - on this day - and everyday. And as I humbly say with love to mothers caught in grief, "Grief is much like love; its tears, like the tears of joy, may be the well of love! It is the reflection at the heart of our love. And as mothers, it is all we have left to give." There is no time-limit on grief, nor should there be. To me, we should allow ourselves to move into that "limbo" of grief and give ourselves up to it - our pain comes from our loss and from our helplessness, a helplessness unbearable to a mother. In times such as these, words are inadequate but words are all we have.