“A mother, a real mother, is the most wonderful person in the world. She’s the angel voice that bids you goodnight, kisses your cheek, whispers, ‘Sleep tight.'”
– Wendy Moira Angela Darling, Peter Pan

Wendy says this to the Lost Boys, especially her younger brothers, as she’s convincing them to leave Neverland with her, to go home. Neverland is practically a dreamworld to them, where they can just play forever and ever, and it didn’t take long after their arrival with Peter Pan for them to start forgetting their old lives back home, including their family. They’ve been romping around in eternal, unthinking, rambunctious childhood, but as Wendy mentions their mother, it touches something deep inside them. It’s a feeling, a memory, a love, a connection so profound and real that it wakes them up as if from a daze, rising from the haze of tomfoolery into a calm but firm yearning for her, for mother. Thus, they wipe away the markings of uninhibited youth, and start becoming something more, something grown up.

Out of all the things in the world, it is a mother’s love which inspires the Lost Boys to give up their forever playground and leave childhood behind, to take that first step in growing from wild, unruly hooligans into mature, capable adults.

The love of a mother, it takes all kinds of forms, and wears all manner of faces. She’ll be there for her children whenever she can. She’ll work long and hard to support them, and feed them the best meals she can, as if conjured up from nothing. She’ll fight on their behalf and tear the world apart if need be. She’ll give them comfort and safety even when she, too, is exhausted from the stress of life. She’ll nurture them with everything she has, and seeing to every detail of the household, thrusting order upon unrestrained chaos, teaching them, herding them, tucking them into bed, crying with them, laughing with them. And so very much more.

That’s a mother, with such love as can only be called undeniable, unfathomable, unyielding, and unstoppable.

Small wonder they are such pivotal figures in our existence.

Good mothers make children strong, just as surely as good fathers do.

I learned all of that from my own mother. I am very, very blessed to have her, and thankful for her.

She has always been there for me. She’s always been ready to defend me and fight on my behalf. She taught me to pay attention to what I feel, because it matters. She showed me that people can be good without being identical, and living the letter of the law is only as good as the spirit with which we live it. She enabled me to pursue my dreams and my passions. She has helped me and strengthened me in countless ways, from the earliest days of waking her up in the middle of the night, to rushing me to the hospital when I was in pain and mortal danger, to clothing me as a boy who wanted nothing to do with clothes shopping, to tucking me in at night, to holding me accountable when I made stupid mistakes, to helping me throughout college, and on and on and on.

Thank you, God, for giving me my mother, the most wonderful person in the world.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

I love you!