Mother

Who was it that said a mother’s heart is a child’s classroom?

And in her class, a child learns about love, forgiveness, compassion, charity. A mother’s heart is the only classroom where the child is forever a student no matter his or her age. Simply because a mother’s heart is a repository of knowledge, a fount of wisdom, a mine of strength.

Those who are continually schooled in a mother’s heart — through her caring and pampering, even tough love — face the world with confidence and courage. Confidence is learned from a mother’s heart because her love is certain. When things are certain, confidence is born in a child. Courage is also a subject matter in a mother’s classroom. The mother teaches bravery and valor to her children when they have doubts, when they are uncertain, when they feel vulnerable, when they are tentative in taking a leap. The lessons on courage and confidence are in themselves a mother’s legacy to her children.

And when the students hear nothing but throbbing in a mother’s heart, when no actions are taking place inside her heart, when they feel they are far away from the source of knowledge, that is the time when the mother is delivering an important lecture on independence. It is this freedom that allows her children to go out of the classroom and discover the world.

The outside world is not controlled by mothers. No one mortal controls it. Mothers only pray that their children will be safe out there, every day, every night, every single moment of their children’s lives. They give their wards the freedom to discover, too, themselves because mothers know that autonomy is significant in children’s growth. As the children find their own spot under the sun, mothers, in their silence or comfortable distance, continue to illumine their lives with guidance, friendship, understanding and insight.

Mothers know when to let go of their children because they understand so well that they can only hold their children’s hands for a while; but their hearts forever. Later on, it is the children, because they are taught in the mother’s school of dignity, love and gratitude, who will hold the mother’s hand and keep her in their hearts — forever. It is a divine evidence that the bond is binding between mother and child.

A mother will always be the child’s first woman to love. That is a sweet fact of life. It’s so sweet that even when the child has grown to be 60 or 70, as my own mother always tells me, he or she will always remember that his or her mother’s love is pure, unadulterated, a source of happiness, a source of life. That even when one is 70, one will always search for a mother’s pampering when one feels under the weather.

In the classroom that is the mother’s heart, children learn to listen and to speak up. They learn to hunt for blessings and to share these blessings with others. They learn to love and when they get hurt, they learn from the experience as they are insulated by mother’s love. Sometimes, the children have already moved on from the hurts but the mother still feels the pain. But such is the beauty of a mother’s love — pure, sincere, selfless. It is in the same spirit of purity, sincerity and selflessness that she heals herself.

I read somewhere that God created mothers because He will perpetually need a conduit in executing His plans. So, the handiwork of God is seen in the actions of mothers. God, omniscient and omnipotent, would have wanted to set the table, cook breakfast, water the plants or replace busted bulbs but His hands are tied so He taps on mothers to do the tasks. To celebrate one’s mother is to celebrate God.

Happy Mother’s Day!

(For your new beginnings, please e-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com. I’m also on Twitter @bum_tenorio and Instagram @bumtenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)