Happy Mother's Day (in case no one remembers to tell you)

here's one for moms of all kinds 💐

Mother’s Day always comes at one of the busiest months of the year, so your family might not remember that they’re supposed to massively spoil you this weekend. And if you’re not a mom in the traditional sense but you still do the sacrificial work of nurturing and raising up children, you sure as heck deserve to be celebrated, too.

Here’s my attempt at cheering you on. ❤️

Dearest mama,

There’s no way that anyone could adequately appreciate you and what you do. A proper 100% celebration of you could never be as much as you deserve. Your work can’t be quantified or reciprocated. And that’s part of its glory.

Your task is so noble and important that it’s hard for me to think of an upward climb or graduation from there. What can be a promotion from the gentle guidance of hearts? What’s more meaningful than showing affection to people who look to you for it more than anybody else? What’s more powerful than speaking life to young ones and helping them know who they are?

You have so much to offer, dear mama, and you give it freely.

Your people crave tenderness, and you lavish them with it.

Your people crave lightheartedness in dark times, and you offer it even when you’re battling anxieties of your own.

Your people crave boundaries—even if they say otherwise—and you provide those, too.

You show your people that you don’t just love them but you like them. With your smiles and delighted eyes, you tell another human being that they are worth something.

Though you might feel like a rollercoaster sometimes, I’ll bet you are steadier than you think…and your people notice it.

You have chosen to lay down your pride and open your heart and life to people who will most likely hurt you. You are choosing to be vulnerable because you think love is worth the risk. What courage that takes! You are truly brave.

Whether you’re chatting in the car, pulling your kid aside at the playground to correct them, sharing a snack during homework, changing a diaper, kissing goodnight, grounding from a phone, apologizing after you lost your cool…in every conversation, you are stopping the world to say, “You matter” to someone who needs to hear it.

You pause all the other things you have going on to teach your kids…and that is probably more instructive than whatever you’re saying. You’re showing them that they’re worth your most valuable resource: your time.

Things that feel like a total waste of time are not a waste of time if they’re done in love. Love is gloriously inefficient.

Keep going, mama. You’ve signed up for a task you don’t get to resign from. You are persevering and becoming stronger than you ever dreamed.

Here are some flowers for you, though you deserve fields and fields ❤️

I hope your family spoils you and lavishes you with gratitude and loving words. I hope you wake up to flowers and breakfast in bed. But if you find yourself disappointed, just remember: there’s no correlation between your worth and other people’s recognition of it! The task of mothering is a humble and hidden one, but you are seen, dear mama.

Love,

Hope Henchey

P.S. If you want more encouragement, here’s the Mother’s Day letter I wrote last year!

Feel free to send this to a mom who could use some encouragement.