Time to Get My Sap On

I can get a little sentimental, and I'm about to. So hold onto your butts.

So today is (was) Mother's Day. At church they always strive to drive home the point that it is a day to celebrate all women. I was sort of pondering upon that point - is there any merit to it, or is it just the PC thing to do? Not pondering in an insensitive jerk sort of way, but wondering what kind of case could be built.

While our thoughts rightly turn first to our own mothers and the mothers of our children, are those really the only mother figures we ever have in our lives? We also can extend this celebration of mothers to grandmothers and aunts. In most cases, those individuals are as close as you can get to the real thing.

But are there more than just our relatives?

As many young Mormon lads do, when I turned nineteen I left home to serve a two-year mission. One of the issues to deal with is that your own mother is essentially taken away from you for that two-year period. You're sent to a strange place where you've never been to live among people you don't know. You get a weekly letter in the mail and a phone call twice a year. That's pretty much it.

It was rough on me, as it is for a lot of young elders. Eventually, I adapted to the void, partially through passage of time and I believe partialy through many of the great sisters who lived in the wards within the Tacoma Washington area. Not that they had any sort of parental relationship with me - but my missionary companions and I were the beneficiaries of their motherly qualities. They did many of the things that a mother would do for her son - giving gifts, baking birthday cakes, preparing delicious meals, offering compliments, and welcoming us into their homes - not just as members of the church fulfilling an obligation, but as friends.

So reflecting on these ladies and their acts of kindness today - I guess you can say it got a little dusty in the chapel for a few seconds today. I haven't seen or talked to most of them in 15 years. At least one of them has passed away. It's a select group - I could count the specific sisters I was thinking of on my two hands and have a few fingers left. I guess I don't necessarily need to name them here, but I could if I wanted to. I won't ever forget them, and on Mother's Day 2011 I salute them for how they blessed my life.

And so, a woman can be a mother to anyone, even if only temporarily.