A Mother’s Love

Do you remember the combination of abundance and fearlessness you felt when you were in your mother’s arms? Today’s newsletter is about mothers and love.

In my office I hear and see acts of love every day in both the words and actions of mothers, who when confronted with a loophole of sadness forgo misery and find boundless love and happiness for both themselves and their child. Last week I saw one of the purest acts of love I have ever seen. The touch and words of a mother demonstrated for me the meaning of love.

As I opened the door and walked into my exam room I saw a mother lifting her teenager with severe cerebral palsy up onto the exam table. She held her child with an embrace of love and strength. Her movements were strong and graceful. Liberating her child from the confines of the wheelchair she transformed my exam table into an altar. She slid her right arm from beneath her daughter’s legs and reaching up caressed her child’s face.  As she smoothed her hair and swept some loose strands behind her right ear, she leaned close and spoke as she looked into her eyes. Her soothing voice was musical yet soft as well as powerful and tender. The words I did not hear, but the love I did see.

She turned and looked at me, still bent over her child. She smiled and turning back to her daughter said: “Look who is here to visit with us today.” I walked over, touched her daughter’s foot softly, and we both smiled as her daughter laughed loudly.

That day I saw a mother’s capacity and capability to yield without breaking and liberate without commanding. This mother showed me how gentleness mediated by love could free her and her child from the rigidity and calamities of the physical world and allow weakness to become strength.

As I said goodbye I realized in a world where appearance and reality increasingly collide with our wishes and dreams it is the fearless and humble power of a mother’s love that can enlighten, empower and reunite each of us.