Anna Jarvis was brilliant, when in 1908 from a Methodist church in West Virginia, she established the first Mother’s Day. As every mother knows, the smallest gesture of thanks: a card, a handmade gift, a call or flower can lift a mother’s spirit and guarantee another 12 months of self sacrifice and devotion. Mothers are easily won over. We are savvy enough to know it’s all a ploy to keep us engaged for another 364 days of dinners, rides to games, laundry cleaned and tears wiped. We love it just the same.

The thousands of mothers I have cared for over the years teach me just how eternal this mission is. Not to be accepted lightly, motherhood is synonymous with self sacrifice. There is no gene for this, so each approaches the responsibility in different ways and with varied skills. But for every single woman who takes on this title, there is no greater disciplined direction in life. All jobs, careers, relationships, friends, events are secondary to this effort.

Not everyone will accept it and so Alma realizes it’s not in her daughter or granddaughter’s wheelhouse and steps up and raises her great granddaughter, hoping the cancer stays at bay for at least 18 years and into her 90’s. Maureen holds Tommy’s hand while we discuss the brain tumor and hides behind the mask so he doesn’t see the tears fall. Georgia grasps me by the arms demanding that we work hard for her lung cancer survival so she can see her daughter as a bride. Understanding fully, we arrange the ceremony in the hospital months before it was to be. The stories are as amazing as the women. I thought I appreciated motherhood from my own perspective and that of my fabulous daughter-in-law, nieces, sisters, wonderful close friends, readers and relatives. I thought training by my own amazing and very missed mother and grandmother, mother-in law and aunts prepared me.

What every mother reading this knows is that all the doing and duties as a mother have nothing to do with motherhood. Children hold our hearts in their chubby little hands and we abdicate all self preservation. When they call after many months, your heart melts, when they mumble “love you” we grasp it as if tangible. When they ache, fear or need guidance, we are at the ready. Who could possibly do all of this?

God may not have created a gene for motherhood. But we are all gifted with the innate ability and desire to care our entire lifetime and never ever stop. We are a sorority of power, selflessness, and fierce devotion. You never needed a mother’s day to tell you that. May God Bless you all, dear friends and give you strength to continue the mission of mothering and nurturing every single day.