What a poor world it would be if everyone put their own personal safety, security and selfish advancement first and last – if no one was prepared to go beyond themselves. It is always because people have been prepared to forget self–interest that the most precious things humanity possesses have been born. Mothers give us that example.

Motherhood is a very clear model of what selfless love is. We can think of our mothers who gave us life and our first learning of selfless love. Did she find it easy? Perhaps she knew many challenges and all the negative emotions that come with them. Whatever her circumstances, she passed on to us in the next generation the knowledge of how to take selflessness to the next level. Think of the seedling she nurtured and let spring new shoots with vigor, while all the time giving of her own self in every way she could to make it happen. We like to think of this gift of life and the caring we have had from our mothers, especially when Mother's Day is celebrated, this year it is on May 8th. All our thoughts come together when we choose our card to send.

As they age we journey with them to live fully and fruitfully and to realize their full potential. Sometimes this is challenging and we may choose not to move into a caring situation. Or we can; we have a bond that moves us forward.  We may live longer if we take things easy, if we sit on the sidelines and carefully manage life slightly apart from our mothers. We will exist longer. But will we live longer?

To care for our mothers we must expect to change a little. We learn to pass from one stage of life to another, something in us dies and something new is born. It is in getting out of ourselves, in dedicating ourselves to her and beyond ourselves, that we grow and become most effective. We can ditch selfishness and pretense and create something new. We can hope, we can reflect and we can overcome. We learn to love ourselves and forget our bad days. It is when we forget ourselves that we are most free and most happy.

We are the present generation and we have the chance to pass on, like our mothers, with example, with actions and with words, all that is encapsulated in the wonderfully selfless world that is motherhood.