To Mothers with Love

A Mother’s Beautiful Love for Her Baby

There is nothing more beautiful in this world than a mother’s genuine love for her child or children. It is definitely something worth celebrating.

The woman who composed the words for “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Julia Ward Howe, first proposed the celebration of a Mother’s Day in 1870 to recognize peace and protest following the Civil War. Despite her dedicated work to form annual organized events in Boston to honor mothers, Her efforts did not produce event results per se, but her impassioned proclamation for all mothers still exists, and perhaps is even more meaningful in the world today.

Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: ‘We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

“Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, ‘Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice.’ Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each learning after his own time, the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”

Some Mothers Would Give Their Own Lives to Protect Their Little Ones. This mother may be protecting her little ones from a Hawk or other predator.

In 1907, Anna Jarvis, a Methodist, began a campaign to establish a permanent Mother’s Day. By the following year, the YMCA had taken up the cause and, in 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a congressional resolution establishing Mother’s Day in the United States. In time, the day came to be celebrated in many other countries.


In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a congressional resolution establishing Mother’s Day in the United States.

Regardless of where you are located, what you have or don’t have, I want to wish each and every mother among you the very best life has to offer for today, tomorrow and always. When you bring up a child as well as you can, you are doing something remarkable for our world. Julia Ward Howe didn’t have it wrong; today we can understand her sentiments for all the children of the world.

11 thoughts on “To Mothers with Love

  1. That is interesting, Margaret, and I imagine the history behind it is equally interesting then. I wish you the best life has to offer for this Mother’s Day. Peace and blessings always, Anne

    Like

  2. Sadly, much of Ms. Howe’s original intent has been lost. The same force that ultimately made Mother’s Day a success and a widely celebrated holiday also lost the original meaning. This would be the greeting card industry. As is so often true among humans, there was little interest in Howe’s little idea until someone found a way to make money with it. Mother’s Day cards still sing praises of Mothers and Motherhood, but the worldview compassion has all but disappeared.
    Mother’s Day continues to be the holiday on which greeting card sales are the highest.
    So, a compromise or a sellout?
    Both, I suppose, as we’d have no Mother’s Day without the Mother’s Day Industry.
    At least one part of Ms. Howe’s idea held up; a day specifically selected to appreciate Mothers.

    Paz

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes, that is true Pazlo. Thank you kindly for your recognition of this situation related to mother’s day. And I am not certain if this bears any weight on the situation, but if I read history correctly, prior to the Civil War, people buried their own dead on their own land and were able to give meaning to their deaths. But I think a lot of pain came to families because not only did the war take the lives of their beloved, but they could no longer bury their own so that loss was much more painful. Some years ago I remember a woman whose little girl had been killed, perhaps in a traffic accident, and she fought hard and long to get her child’s body so that she could hold a wake and prepare the body herself for its last trip. She won the case, and it helped me to remember how that small act gave people some sense of closure despite its tragedy. So I did not mention that, but I am quite sure that contributed to the mourning of the losses that women faced in that war. Thank you for your thoughtful contributions to this blog. Anne

      Liked by 1 person

Leave a reply to Anne Copeland Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.