A Mother’s Love
Adding value to your life with the knowledge that you are loved
In this picture, my son is playing with water and having an absolute blast at a friend’s barbeque. It was an easy picture to take because he has a permanent smile resting on his face.
Andriel is happiness personified.
His utter joy is incredible. It is contagious, loud, obvious, in your face, and out there. He does not blend in easily, and he knows it. He is flirtatious and will sneak a cheeky grin to anyone who will so much as pass a glance at him.
As his mother, I tear up at the gift the world felt I deserved. The experience I live constantly as a mum is absolutely incomparable to anything else I could ever imagine. It’s of a higher entity in and of itself, almost god-like.
I put my son on a pedestal because he is my saving grace. He is my precious treasure. He symbolises love in its simplest and purest form.
He is my inspiration and my motivation to love.
He has taught me to love uncontrollably, purely, and wholeheartedly. If anything, he is my teacher at the one thing called life.
You have two eyes to see with, You have two ears to hear, You have one mouth to feed with, And one small nose right here.| Your feet are down below, Your hair is up above. You have my arms to hold you, And I have you to love. — Nursery Rhyme
I had tears of happiness rolling down my cheeks as I typed the above. I sing the nursery rhyme above to my son almost every day as a way to thank the universe every day for him.
I hope to encapture the depth of love I describe to the point you too can feel it.
Imagine that this is just a mother’s love.
This love is so special, yet so common.
You can find a mother anywhere — in teachers, doctors, lawyers, chefs, taxi drivers, CEO’s, authors, beauty technicians, hair dressers, marketing managers, factory workers, government officials, zoo keepers.
A mother’s love is ever-present — it does not have a nationality or a passport. Her love has no barriers or limits, and no judgement.
And everyone has a mother regardless of their presence.
I want you to believe that you too are the subject of someone else’s love this deep, regardless of your and their current circumstances.
“All you need is love.” — The Beatles
Knowing you are loved to this degree by someone else, imagine how much love you can give to yourself.
A mother’s love is just a guide to show you how much you too are capable of love.
It does not judge. Love does not discriminate.
If I love my son this much, I would want him to love himself even more. I won’t always be there to love him, and in any case, my love won’t be enough because we cannot be dependent on others to feel good. Hopefully, I am teaching him how to love right.
If you won’t love yourself for your sake, do it for your mother, for that’s her ultimate goal.
Sylvia Emokpae, thinker and philosopher, is passionate about self-love, motherhood, and pro-race. See more work like this.
