Happy Mother's Day To All Who Nurture

Happy Mother’s Day To All Who Nurture

When I was little, my mom and I saved a sick bird. I don’t remember where we found the bird, but I do remember us looking at a bird on the pavement somewhere. We crouched down to see what the matter was since the bird seemed stuck and unable to fly. If my memory isn’t failing me, one wing appeared to be broken. I felt sad and nervous at the declining health of this fragile animal, which very well could’ve been a pigeon. Seeing this, my mom had the idea to perhaps “help it”. So we gathered some supplies from home: a metal cage that used to be a parakeet’s cage, a tiny water bowl, and some grains. We put this all in a corner of the garage, gently placing the bird inside. Each morning, we quietly crept into the garage taking peeks into the cage, refilling the water bowl. The bird was kept alive, becoming more energetic each time we visited. Finally, we took the cage outside, opened the hatch, and the bird flew away. 

Though my mom has done incredible deeds for me and for others, this memory has been coming back to me in recent years. For a complicated world, it seems such a simple, genuine act. That she took in something so helpless and seemingly inconsequential to revive it with the little means that we had – in terms of knowledge and supplies – taught me that hope in even the smallest doses of kindness really does matter. 

For Mother’s Day this year, I’m honoring and celebrating all those who nurture us and the world we live in. Let’s shower our nurturers with hugs, kisses, love, and our presence. 

Looking for a good Mother’s Day read? I recommend Marcia Gay Harden’s The Seasons Of My Mother: A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers (2018) and Sarah Knott’s Mother Is A Verb: An Unconventional History (2019). 

My mother and I, September 5th of last year:

- F