“...I have so many dreams of my own, and I remember things from my childhood, from when I was a girl and a young woman, and I haven't forgotten a thing. So why did we think of Mom as a mom from the very beginning?”

“She didn't have the opportunity to pursue her dreams, alone, faced everything the era dealt her, poverty and sadness, and she couldn't do anything about her very bad lot in life other than suffer through it and get beyond it and live her life to the very best of her ability,”

“giving her body and her heart to it completely. Why did I never give a thought to Mom's dreams?”

This excerpt is from the book, “Please look after mom” by Shin Kyung-sook.

Behind the women we call mom are people just like us, with dreams, insecurities, fears, wishes...desires, failures and flaws.

Our stories begin with them, and we very often forget that theirs has yet to end.
That our presence isn’t the only dream they are allowed to have.

So on Mother’s Day, I want to ask anyone who comes across this thread, to take a moment to appreciate your mother also for the woman she is ..or was
To see her, her humor, her drive, her persistence, her fears, the parts that are unique to her outside of her service to you.

To mothers who may read this, I hope you find the freedom and courage to also continue your own personal story.

I hope that you get to live to your own specification, and are never compelled to reject yourself, to keep up a standard you didn’t create.

You are a mother, and you also are yourself.
And both can and do exist at once, and it’s on us to learn that, to acknowledge that all the parts you play deserve a voice and a presence, if that is what you want.

Happy Mother’s Day you amazing women you!