Dear Mother Letters

You may have seen the project featured over at Rocks in My Dryer. A young dad contacted her about writing a letter for his wife, a young mother. He is collecting letters for his wife and plans to compile them as her Christmas gift this year. He is looking for letters that express all aspects of mothering, a treasury of heart, wisdom, questions, challenges. Blissfully Domestic has also picked up on this great story. So if you want to help a guy out, You can write a post on this and send him the link here.

Anyway, here's my humble attempt:

Dear Mother,

At this time of year it’s often stated that, ‘it is better to give than to receive’. And it is!
It is far more fun to find a gift that is ‘just right’, and watch the surprise on a family member or friend’s face as they unwrap it; than it is to be the recipient, nice though that is! Family Christmas memories are often full of Oscar winning performances of joy and thankfulness at receiving yet another give-away calendar, or pair of socks!

What I would like to share with you is the lesson that one of my friend’s mother’s taught me.
She did me a favour, and to say thank you, I brought her some flowers which she accepted very graciously. She then sat me down and explained; ‘If you do something for me, and I do something for you. That’s very nice. But it only goes backwards and forwards between the two of us - it’s a closed circle. But if I help you, and then you are able to do something for two more people, and they go on to help others, then we create a chain.’ This is a lesson that has stayed with me.

I feel very strongly that we should show our children (and maybe some adults?) that we should give, in the words of the prayer ‘without counting the cost, and without expecting any reward’; and we should receive gifts graciously, even if we are not able to reciprocate. Then, when we can, we should pass the kindness on, and create a chain.

With every kind wish for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ginny