Celebrating Mothers

Necklaces made from painted pasta, beaded bracelets and creations with lots of tape and cardboard boxes., wrapped lovingly with meters of paper and string. The surety that gifts will also include chocolate and a pair of slippers for winter. Hot coffee and toast in bed and the serenity of 20 mins to enjoy it by my self. Ahhhh, I love Mothers Day.

Blogging a little late today. Had far too many nice things to enjoy this morning- which dragged into the afternoon and then evening. Morgan and Adrian cooked a roast leg of Pork accompanied by broadbeans in butter, sweet pumpkin mash and crackling – yum! We shared our Mothers Day lunch with Jodi, Dylan and Dave. Jodi forced us to endure her famous ( low calorie, low fat – not) mars bar chocolate caramel cheese cake.

With champagne in hand, we chatted and generally spent some quality adult time together. Even more delightful, the guys took the kids off to the park behind our house while Jodi and I pampered ourselves. Face mask on, feet soaking in deliciously hot water, scented candles.. and no kids screaming… ahh bliss.

Its such a simple treat – to paint ones toes nails, to buff and shape ones fingernails and to have a deep cleanse and then gorgeous moisturizing facial… hummmm

My family never did much in the way of Mothers Day – or Fathers Day. Mum hated to eat in bed and said it just attracted cockroaches. So breakfast in bed was out of the question for her. She was generally up at sparrow fart milking cows or mustering sheep anyway. We never went much on cards – handmade or otherwise; and I suspect any creations we may have brought home went into the bin – for they never made a showing past it being brought home from school.

On the other hand – last year I proudly wore my pasta jewelry to work the next day – and dared anyone to say anything about it. I have huge scrap books stuffed full of every scrap of paper or card that Morgan and Lilly touched. I keep telling myself that when they are famous artists that I will sell the masterpieces off piece by piece to secure my millions into my disraceful retirement.

I knew from my love of history that Mothering Sunday was one of the only days indentured young people in servitude or otherwise, were allowed to go to their parents hovel/ home for the day.Of course it was tied up with the dogmatic beliefs of the church – wherein the reason servants were allowed to visit home was to go to church with their mothers and to pray to the Virgin Mary. .In the UK its celebrated at a different time – March I think? I also have an inkling that Mothers Day in the US came about by women getting together and wanting peace for their war torn country ( during 1800s civil war) I guess that as with many things – very sadly – Australia took that idea ( like a little brother thinks big brothers stuff is so much cooler than Mum or Dads stuff) and worked it around the UKs idea.. to come up with something that is commercial, empty and fairly meaningless to most people.

Further back in history, I know that each god or goddess had their special day which was celebrated and depending on the culture – there would have been a particular goddess who over looked or was the patron of mothers. That celebration of the feminine, of giving thanks to those who nurtured and sacrificed for her family – that is the pure essence in which Mothers Day aught to be celebrated.

In a sense, that is what we did today. Our family units are now so disengaged through distance and emotions, that they do not function as they were meant to. We are fortunate enough to have a good links with friends who share similar beliefs in community spirit. That space we created to nurture our feminine side to pamper and beautify – that is the essence of our celebration today.