Mother’s Day was originated by Anna Javis of Philadelphia on May 12, 1907 in honor of her mother. In 1914 Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day a national holiday. The tradition has been celebrated ever since that beginning.

Even though my mother died 27 years ago I often think back and celebrate those special gifts she taught and shared with me throughout my life. I learned how to embroider and have a tablecloth I made and used. Her great love of nature and especially birds was passed on to me as we watched and identified birds at the bird feeder or went for walks in the woods. I treasure the great variety of bird pictures that decorate my apartment. After supper was the time for a game or two or three of cribbage and the review of the day or week that kept us in touch with one another. Every spring was time for flower planting and to this day petunias decorate my yard in mom’s honor.

Perhaps the best gift she gave me was teaching me how to make homemade bread. As a child I learned by watching my mother on those rare but treasured times when she would make bread. It usually was for a special holiday or when my brother came home on leave from the Navy. The kitchen would fill with the smell of flour, yeast, dough rising, bread baking, bread cooling. I could hardly wait for a taste.  

When I was in my twenties, I asked my mother to teach me how to make bread. Out came the family recipe, large bowl, and all the necessary ingredients. Patiently, she guided me through my first experience of bread making with all the waiting and watching that was needed. After 50 plus years that recipe is a part of me with no need for a written version to follow. Many loaves of bread have come to life on my kitchen table, been shared with family and friends, and given as gifts to those who are important to me. It has become an experience of breaking bread and sharing life which is a treasure to me and for which I am grateful to my mother.

Mother’s Day takes me beyond my own mother to all those women who have been and are a significant part of my life. Family, friends, my sisters in community, co-workers who through the sharing of life experiences have taught me about dedication, courage, strength, love, loyalty, spirituality, and God. And for them I am grateful.  

As I think of all those who have taught me about being human, about being a woman, about caring for others, about caring for self, I am grateful.

All these I honor this day.

Happy Mother’s Day.

– Netty Johnson, SSND