Happy International Women’s Day!

I am grateful for this day to honor and remember women and their endless and vital contributions to society.

As my friend says, I know we are trying our best every lap of this marathon.

Recently, our kids called someone on the phone and during this conversation my kids shared they were watching Moana. The person asked, “You’re not reading a book?”

Later, I shared this question with my mom, chuckling. She asked why I didn’t interject that we just read three books together before starting the movie.  And I said, “Why? And when would it be enough?”

After I shared that the four of us played with clay, and then little guy colored his Ninja statue by himself?  Or how I took three kids to a STEM night where we made windmills and encoded directions for a bee-bot (and then I found a mouse robot for the kids to direct at home)? Or how I took all three to a dance expo that same week?  Or how I just helped my daughter finish her poster about great white sharks, which she turned in three days before the deadline?  Or how great our baby bot is doing with potty training because of our persistence and watchful eye?

We don’t do these things because we want to impress someone.  We do it because we love our children.  Because we want the best for them.  Because we enjoy spending time with them.

I am a mother.  I come from a family of voyagers who came to this country searching for the best for their children.  I am a mother, and I cannot walk out of my job because I can’t take my heart out of my body.  I am mother who is grateful for help from other mothers, like Michele, Kristi, and Christine.  I am a mother whose mother loves her, and whose mother’s mother showed her how to be joyous.  I am a mother who makes her own way in the ocean.  Who, out of necessity, wants to build her own boat and travel where her heart leads.

I think of my own mom.  How much she has sacrificed for us.  How she cares for us.  She’s not doing it to impress.  She is doing it because she loves us.  I am privileged to have that love, and blessed to have her instill her values in me and in my children.  Values like putting people above things.  Valuing literature and the arts.   Appreciating good fun, like watching Moana and singing along with the songs.

So here is a toast to my mom and to all the great women everywhere!  To watching empowering, beautiful movies, reading eye-opening books, and eating chocolate.  To sharing our interests with our kids.  Learning new things together.  God bless you and your children and your children’s children!  Have fun today!