Celebrating Mom

Carolyn Naught Saxton / 1920 - 1980

When I was a little girl, my mother was “my world”.

She did all the things you’d expect a Mom might do, like hold your hand, read you a story, fix meals, teach manners, dry tears, cheer you up and on.

As I grew, I saw that she loved to give. And that she loved to laugh. She loved people and loved life, and tried to worry only on Tuesdays.

Lucky for us, she also happened to be an accomplished poet. Her works appeared in anthologies as early as her teens, and her last, perhaps greatest work, was the collection of sonnets published in her book The Pine and The Power.

My mother left the world much, much too soon ~ but she left gifts. Treasured, timeless words; gifts from the heart, mind and spirit.

So on this day reserved for mothers, I’d like to share some of those words. I share them, as I did last year, in honor and life-giving celebration of mothers near and far, here or remembered. Happy Mother’s Day!

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God help our children to transcend the dark

And walk the earth with dignity and cheer;

God help them seek the mountains, persevere

The road that twists through thorn and tanglebark,

Ascending finally where eagles mark

Their point of vision. Help our children find

Two masters ~ one the spirit, one the mind ~

And rediscover constancy of heart.

Help us to find cathedrals in the skies,

A will to walk the long uncharted mile;

(The will to find in winter’s legacy

The ochre sands from which the lime trees rise!)

Help us to know the measure of the child ~

To live in time and in eternity.

© Carolyn Naught Saxton

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