What Should You Do on Mother's Day?

Ask Your Mother

Happy Mother’s Day

I’m sharing this extra message with you today, but it’s not from me.

It’s a poem that was written by my 87-year-old father, edited by my 85-year-old mother, and it knocked my socks off. (Make sure you read the whole thing to the last line.)

Born in the 1930’s, my folks haven’t spent much time curating an online audience, but as a teacher and an editor, they’ve both done a fair bit of writing. They don’t have a platform to share content on, and having had this idea for a poem about mother’s day, I got a message from my mom, asking if I could help them figure out where this poem could be shared.

They don’t know this is going out to my own mailing list, but I’m going to share the link with them later today as a surprise.

If you’re moved by the poem, leave a comment.

It would mean a lot to my folks to know the message reached somebody today.

My mom and dad - Richard and Nancy Lewis

This Sunday we celebrate Mother’s Day, in case it’s slipped your mind.
The least you can do is send a card, appropriately rhymed.
And if, in addition, you wish to do the same as all your peers,
Send flowers or take Mom out to eat, just as you did last year.

The most flowers are sold on Mother’s Day, even more than on Easter.
It’s also restaurants’ biggest day, so take her out and feast her.
Mother’s Day wasn’t always marked by eating out and flowers.
It started as an anti-war protest in our nation’s darkest hour.

In 1870, post Civil War, Julia Howe appealed to mothers
To protest all violence and future wars, so brothers wouldn’t kill brothers.
The day was observed for many years with prayers and tears amply shed,
Primarily where the war had left the most men wounded or dead.

President Wilson, in 1914, declared observance of a day
To be known as Mother’s Day each year on the second Sunday in May.
Though its founders and supporters resisted commercialization,
In the 1930s Mother’s Day underwent a transformation.

A magazine for florists noted profit if the holiday were tied
To honoring mothers with flowers. It was a ploy worth being tried.
Are there any holidays left where nothing needs to be bought?
Whatever the meaning of the holiday, we buy because we ought.

Giving our precious time would be a more significant gift,
But both giver and receiver are afraid of creating a rift.
I suggest that on this Mother’s Day with your mother you confer.
Tell her the Mother’s Day history and ask what observance she would prefer.

Though Mother’s Day was founded to stop violence, blood and gore,
It’s easier to buy flowers than it is to stop a war.

-Richard Lewis