Today’s assignment from Blogging 101 is to “Get Inspired by Your Neighbors” and write a post that builds on one of the comments you left yesterday while visiting your neighbors in the blogosphere.
Yesterday, I happened to visit a bunch of my neighbors that had responded to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt which was entitled “Dear Mom” and the prompt was to write a letter to your mom and tell her something you’ve always wanted to say, but haven’t been able to.
Before I got started on my own response to the prompt, I decided to read some of the responses of my blogging neighbors. And I was surprised…maybe not surprised, but saddened…to find quite a few of the responses were from bloggers that did not have good things to say about their mothers or about their relationships with their moms. These stories saddened me, to know that so many people did not receive the unconditional love, support and encouragement from their mothers. It seems these things should be guaranteed to any child born into this world…and sadly, it looks as if, this is not a guarantee.
One such post over at A Day In the Life in particular stuck with me long after reading it. She wrote that her mother was not like her friend’s mothers.
“Their mothers loved them unconditionally, built up their confidence, hugged and kissed them for no reason other than they wanted to show their love. Their mothers encouraged them, helped them to rise up to meet a challenge and stood by them as they climbed the mountain to reach it. They gave them guidance, listened to what they had to say, offered feedback with understanding.”
These are the things that should be guaranteed to children everywhere. Yet, one of the sadder parts of her story is that her sisters may have answered this prompt with the same kinds of stories of unconditional love, hugs and kisses, encouragement and guidance, just as her friend’s may have described their moms in the above quote. To me this is so difficult to understand…because my belief is that a mother’s love should be the same for each of her children, with the understanding that each child is an individual and may need these things offered in various ways. Granted this comes from a woman who has never been a mother, so I may not have any idea what I am talking about 🙂 Yet over the years I have loved so many of my friend’s and family’s children and tried to be all of these things to them, so I can only imagine it would be the same if they were my own.
And although I have only ‘met’ this woman through the blogosphere, my heart breaks for her. That although her mom provided her with all the necessary ‘things’ in life, such as food on the table and clothes on her back, her heart longed to know the unconditional love of her mom, to be hugged and kissed, encouraged to meet life’s challenges and to be given guidance, support and understanding through it all. These things should have been a guarantee to this child/woman.
My comment to her was that I was so very sorry that she never knew these things! And that I believed that these life lessons (or lack there of) have made her and shaped her into a wonderfully loving person, who is able to show love, offer encouragement and guidance to others, build up confidences and listen to what others have to say and offer them the support that is needed.
Sometimes we are not dealt a good hand in life (and although I wish this could be changed so that no one has to go through tough times) I also tend to believe that these are the experiences that shape us into the person we become…sometimes for the good…and sometimes for the bad. And that the strong survive and become better people in spite of the adversities they have had to overcome.
Show some love to the people you meet and to the neighbors all around you, in your blogosphere and in your world, and be their encouragement and inspiration so that they may become GREAT people!
All of what happens in our lives does indeed make us who we are. It is sad when children do not feel unconditional love of a parent. I had only my mother as my father had to be barred from the home somewhere around the time I was born. I had 9 brothers and sisters… But my mother had total unconditional and great love, and while things were not easy her love made all the difference. Diane