As it nears Mothers’ Day, I think of my 20 year old cat, Bailey. At her age, she can’t get around much, and will meow for her red water bowl. I’ll offer her food and water in different places and containers all through the house, but in the end she loves her red water bowl.
My two grown sons live far from us in different cities, but as I sit and pet Bailey and watch her drink from the red bowl, I am reminded of their likes, and all the years of making sure that they had things that brought them comfort.
One son would like one thing, the other something completely different, but we would learn what each of their own red bowls were. Sometimes I’d get it wrong, sometimes I made mistakes, but the caring of trying to get it right reminds me of us mothers and how we try. And I mean mothers to whatever you love and care for - a child, an animal, a loved one.
I used to say my kids lived rent free in my belly for 9 months - but the truth is, I’ve have been so lucky to have learned so much from being a mom to my sons as well as our cats in life. As I say to my kids, “as your mom, I will love you no matter what; I will never stop loving you; and I will worry about you until the day I die.” Some days they’re probably thinking “just go away", but of course we won't.
My mom passed several years ago, and I would love to be able to talk to her, even one more time, just to listen to her voice and thank her for all the ways she taught me how to be a mother.
And with those thoughts, I’m back to filling up that red bowl…
