The young mother set her foot on the path of life. “Is this the long way?” she asked. The guide said: “Yes, but the way is hard, and you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning”.
But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way, bathed them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them. But the young mother cried, “Nothing will ever be lovelier than this”.
Then the night came, and the storm, the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold. The mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle. The children said, “Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come”.
The morning came, there was a hill ahead and the children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary. But at all times she said to the children, “A little patience and we are there”. So the children climbed. When they reached the top they said, “Mother, we would not have done it without you”.
The mother, when she lay down at night looked up at the stars and said, “This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage; today I have given them strength”.
The next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth, clouds of war and hate and evil. The children groped and stumbled. The mother said: “Look up. Lift your eyes to the light”. The children looked up and saw the clouds above in an everlasting glory, which guided them beyond the darkness. That night the mother said, “This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God”. The days went on, the weeks, the months and the years. The mother grew old and she was little and bent, but her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage. When the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was light as feather. At last they came to a hill and beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide open.
The mother said, “I have reached the end of my journey. Now I know the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them”.
The children said “You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates”. As they stood and watched her as she went on alone, the gates closed after her. They said: “We cannot see her but she is with us still. A mother like ours is more than a memory, she is a living presence…”.
Your mother is always with you… She’s the whisper of the leaves as you walk down the street. She’s the smell of soap in your freshly laundered socks. She’s the cool hand on your brow when you’re not well. Your mother lives inside your laughter. She’s crystallized in every tear drop. She’s the place you came from, your first home. She’s the map you follow with every step you take. She’s your first love and your first heartbreak, and nothing on earth can separate you. Not time, not space… not even death!
