Mothers Day

So I'm a little late on this post, but I'm okay with being untimely.

I simply want to express my appreciation for my mother, for her unconditional love. Such a ubiquitous concept, but a difficult one to grasp--love. Though I just read Pope Benedict's encyclical "Deus Caritas Est" (God is love), so I should intellectually understand the "freely-bestowed experience of love from within, a love which by its very nature must then be shared with others." My mother has offered experience to my knowledge of love.

My mom supports me in everything I do. She tries to understand my thoughts and ideas, however radical they might seem. She believes in me. But more important than anything, though I didn't earn it and don't always deserve it, she loves me.

For that love, I'm grateful. But my thanks comes with some guilt: every minute, a mother dies in childbirth. AIDS and tuberculosis claim the lives of 10-15,000 parents each day. So for every child with a loving mother, many more children have no mothers--no love, often no hope.

We need to protect the world's mothers.