Mother’s Day…Gifts and Awards…

An early Mother's Day card from my daughter with one of my favourite quotes:

"Dance like no one is watching,
Love like you will never be hurt,
Sing like no one is listening,
Live like its heaven on earth"
William Purkey
                    

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day in Australia and elsewhere…and so to all of you wonderful women reading this post, I wish you a very happy day,  whether you are celebrating with your children – babies, toddlers, children, preteens, teenagers, young adults, and adults – or missing them as they are away from you, living their own lives. To the mothers who have children away at war, I salute you as the daughter of a naval officer.

 I have learned that one never stops being a mother.  We ache with our children when they hurt, whether it be in their hearts or their bodies;  we laugh and smile with them when they are happy and proud of themselves;  and we cry with them, in both happy and sad circumstances.  We grieve for them with their losses;  and I have no doubt I would  feel as if I had died with them if they were to be unexpectedly taken too early.

And we mothers miss our own mothers.  Mine died in 1991 and there is rarely a day goes by in which some glimpse of her does not pass gently through my memory.  Perhaps I may be cooking one of her recipes, listening to a song she loved, or wishing I could ask her opinion about…anything really.  And more than anything I miss sharing the pride I have in my two children with her.

I am a very lucky mother...

I will get a hug from my son, and a card, I am sure.  And from my daughter, who lives on the other side of the country in Sydney I have already received a beautiful card (I have to admit I couldn’t wait to open it!!)  and a ticket to the musical South Pacific which will be showing in Sydney, starring my very dear friend Lisa McCune, in August.  And she has promised lots of hugs when she comes “home”in June for her 30^th birthday celebrations.

So as a gift to my wonderful children on Mother's Day I share another favourite quote:

"I love my past. I love my present.

 I'm not ashamed of what I've had 

  and I'm not sad because I no longer have it."

                                                                 Colette

But  I have another reason to celebrate this weekend.  My dear blogger friend, Martine from Belgium, has awarded me a special blogger award, see, it's on the sidebar. She has been a faithful follower and commenter for the longest time and we agree on most things.  One post I wrote with which she didn’t agree with me was about the use of the title Mademoiselle for older women (You can read it here)…and France agreed with her (!) as they have changed the use of the title to suit the new century’s circumstances.  Please enjoy reading her wonderful blog Wishing I were in France.

And apparently by receiving this award I am obliged to present it to seven other bloggers whom I enjoy reading…and I have to share with you something which you don’t know about me.

So here goes.  The blogs that I will nominate for the award are:

A Femme d'Un Certain Age:  full of humour...and wonderful advice

Dans la Cuisine de Sophie:  google will translate it...to read her wonderful recipes

Parteger Paris: wonderful photos and comments about Paris
Lost in Arles: fascinating musings about everything from a writer living in Provence
My French Country Home:  it is quite simply a joy to read
French Essence by Vicki Archer: just lovely and her books are superb
Papilles et Pupilles: more google translate...but the recipes are worth the wait

The Guilderton galahs..ignoring my performance!

And the something you don’t know about me? I have been known to dance alone on the verandah of my beachhouse, in front of the pink and grey galah birds to very loud music…and the music?…the soundtrack of South Pacific…

An original 1958 poster for South Pacific

P.S.  For those nominees who would like to upload the award logo, you need to right-click on the picture, next 'save picture as ... / save it in a file on your hard disk and then insert it in a 'picture gadget'.