One Mother is Never Enough

Mother -- Is there any other word that can conjure up so many different emotions when we hear it spoken in a group of people? Is there any other word that is so hard to live up to?

I have a good mother, I really do. But I have had so many more mothers than the one I was born to, some of them have even been men--all of them working to help birth the parts of me that make up the whole of me. I am so grateful for them. One mother is never enough.

The crepe paper flowers, the decorated pot, they were not made by a third grader in Sunday School. They were made by a seventeen-year-old who was locked up in juvenile detention at the time.

I know that for him, one mother has not been enough. And I pray that he will have the blessings that I have had, that he will have many mothers to guide him, to put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. I pray that he will open himself to being mothered.

I pray that each of us will realize that mothering does not always mean giving birth to our own flesh and bone, that we will be open to the many opportunities to be a mother in this broken and hurting world. One mother is never enough.

“You have to find a mother inside yourself. We all do. Even if we already have a mother, we still have to find this part of ourselves inside.” The Secret Life of Bees Sue Monk Kidd