Don't You Remember Her?!

Don't you remember her — how she forgot her pains and her aches and clasped you to her breast to lift away from you the fear that beset you at your coming into this strange and wondrous world? She felt that a piece of her heart lay cut to pieces between her hands, yet she smiled at you and kissed you with warmth, tenderness, and affection; then she went about defying the sun, the moon, and the stars, boasting of you — a fresh rose perfuming with its fragrance the whole space of her life!

However woman may vaunt herself and hold her head high, however she may deck herself out and perfume herself, before her child she is that meek and humble creature, that compassionate servant, she who forgets the world and all that is in it and turns to him with her heart and her soul!

The newborn comes into this existence, and the first breaths to pass over his brow, the first kiss to be printed on his cheek, the first arm to enfold him, are his mother's; the first word his lips murmur is "Mama," and the last word with which he cries for help in the hour of death is "Mother"... Had woman been nothing in this world but a mother, that alone would suffice her for honor, greatness, glory, and pride!

Don't you remember her — how she would sing to you that you might sleep, while you would cry to wake her? Yet instead of being angry with you, she felt that her happiness lay in your waking her from her deep, quiet sleep.

Don't you remember that all-embracing tranquility, that overflowing tenderness, which you enjoyed nowhere but in your mother's bosom?

Don't you remember her, when you lay bedridden moaning with fever, how she watched your every motion and every stillness with attentive, gentle, tender eyes? Don't you remember that she found a thousand and one excuses for your faults and your shortcomings, and that she alone saw your ugliness as beauty, your ignorance as understanding, your waywardness as genius! Don't you remember that she was the one person who took your side when troubles assailed you and calamities grew great and the scorching wind seared your soul — she withstood the whole world and set about upholding you with confidence and faith lest you fall, and warded off from you the defiance of the adversaries who stood mocking, clamoring, gloating, longing to tear you to pieces!

Don't you remember that she was the faithful advocate who never betrayed you in any cause, the loyal commander who never left you alone in any battle, the tender consoler who never abandoned you in misfortune and never forgot you in your sorrows and your joys; and that she is always yours and with you — whether you reached the summit of the mountain of glory and greatness or sank into the depths of the valley of failure and defeat, whether you became a national leader pointed out with pride or the leader of a band of thieves, the head of a monastery or the head of a gambling den, a master ruling thousands or a slave ruled by thousands!

You came into this world at the cost of her body, and how happy she would be to leave this world with her eye upon your eye and her hand in your hand. You were her life within life, and she will remain your guardian angel

after death!

People claim that angels dwell only in heaven; as for me, I assure you that on earth, too, there are angels!

A mother's love is ever the same, unchanging. Eve's love for Cain was as her love for Abel; the difference lies in the sons, not in the mothers. Just as the earth nourishes the thorn and the bramble with the same measure of nourishment it offers the lily, the iris, and the violet, so the mother gives her children all that she has — and how gladly she gives her life for their sake, content and willing! She loved you without price; her love is stripped of every ulterior aim and differs plainly from the love others bear you, for when she loves you she has loved the part of herself she prefers. In her love for you she gives and does not take, sacrifices and does not reproach, bestows and does not ask. Yes — the mother is a sacred pledge from the Creator to us; she is the shadow of heaven upon earth, and the love of mothers is a portion of the love of the Eternal, Everlasting One, which has no end and no bounds!

Every time a mother gives humanity a child, she bestows a portion of her body, of her heart, and of her soul. Would that her sacrifice stopped at this limit! For she sacrifices much of her rest for his sake before he is born, and more than much after he is born; and she goes on sheltering him and caring for him as long as life shelters and sustains her — lowering herself that he may rise, spending her strength that he may grow strong; and the stronger he grows and the weaker she becomes, the greater grow her delight and her pride. How strange this sacred emotion is, and how great!