“If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?”
(Milton Berle)

To all the moms out there: Did you have a good Mothers’ Day? Was it everything you hoped it would be? I hope so. I hope you felt appreciated, respected, and deeply loved by your family all around you.

I also hope you felt worthy of it all.

For many moms, guilt is a constant companion. They’re not “doing it all” enough, and they’re not doing any of it well enough. Some of you have guilt-ridden doubts about your ability to play this part, and guilt-ridden fantasies about just running away.

And then Mothers’ Day comes around, and you then feel guilty about all this celebration of you and your accomplishments and abilities as a mom. I hurt for all the moms that felt this way yesterday.

Perhaps next year’s day will be different. Perhaps next year you can look back on:

• a season of self-acceptance and grace,
• a year of comparing yourself to no one else, except maybe your former self
• a time where you stopped judging yourself by your kids’ behavior (they’re going to act like kids, surprisingly enough)

I want you to make peace with all your guilt, so you can appreciate yourself the way your family (or at least, Hallmark) appreciated you yesterday.

Peace begins with pause,