Mother Love

This morning, which happens to be Mother's Day, I looked out my back window at the empty, unused birdfeeder and was suddenly stricken with sadness.  Until a number of weeks ago there would have been many birds, mostly sparrows, gathered around pecking away at the seeds I left out for them.  But I had to stop doing that because the seeds were also attracting a rat that lives under the porch next door. 

Fortunately, I haven't seen the rat since I took away its food supply - although I'm sure it's still around. But now my little birdies are gone as well.  Occasionally I see one or two of them come by to see what's up, but there's no longer a party of chirping birds in the yard brightening my day.  I miss them.  I think of them as my babies (as I do my sweet kitty) and felt personally responsible for them in a small way.
I'm not suggesting that the tiny bit of care I gave to my backyard birds is even remotely close to what a mother of a human child does.  But it's the nurturing feeling I get when I see the little ones that reminds me of what it means to be a mother.
A day doesn't go by when I don't think of my own mother who left this world seventeen years ago.  I still miss her.  I miss being mothered, even at my not-quite-advanced age.  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't need mothering so much if I were a mother myself, but that's a choice I've made, and I don't regret it.  Nevertheless, it's Mother's Day and I can't help getting misty-eyed.
Happy Mother's Day to everyone.  It doesn't matter whether you're a mother or not, because the surest way to save the greatest mother of us all, our beautiful Earth, is to nurture and care for all living things.
Blessed be.
- G.P.