Our relationship with our mothers sets the tone for every significant relationship in our lives.

Our mothers are our first and most powerful role models.

Our most deeply ingrained beliefs about ourselves come from them.

Our behaviors and relationships, whether it’s a relationship with food, with our children, our significant others, or even ourselves, are a reflection of the beliefs we learn from our mothers.

Today, on Mother’s Day I’d like to pause and reflect on this powerful relationship.

The last few years have involved much soul searching where my own relationship with my mother was concerned. Often I would feel responsible for her happiness. But the longer I live the more deeply I realize that a mother’s true happiness is the biggest gift a mother can give her children.

It is only now that she is no longer on this earth that I realize that my relationship with my mother is exactly what I needed at a soul level. Sometimes that love is not only imperfect, it seems to be missing entirely. Sometimes there is blame and shame. And sometimes there is anger and despair.

When the love is imperfect, or a family is destructive, something else can be learned: forgiveness.

I believe that the first, and usually the last, classroom of love is the lessons we learn from our bond with our mothers. It is the bond that wounds but it is also the bond that heals.

Khalil Gibran has this to say about parents and children:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

To my mother, I miss you. I appreciate you, admire you, adore you, and am so very proud to be your daughter.

To all the women and mothers reading this, know how much you are loved and appreciated. Continue to send unconditional love and know that your kind precepts and counsels help dissipate clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to your children’s hearts.

Happy Mother’s Day!

© Rani St. Pucchi, 2019
Rani St. Pucchi is an award-winning Couture Fashion Designer, Style & Image Consultant, and a Relationship Expert. She is a Bestselling Author, an Inspirational Speaker, and a Success Coach and Trainer. Her TEDx talk: Is Your Body Image Holding You Back? has received worldwide acclaim. Rani’s#1 International Bestselling Books, Your Body, Your Style: Simple Tips on Dressing to Flatter Your Body Type ; The SoulMate Checklist: Keys to Finding Your Perfect Partner; Your Bridal Style: Everything You Need to Know to Design the Wedding of Your Dreams; and Gold in the Cracks: Move from Shattered to Whole and Reveal Your Light are available on Amazon and at Barnes & Nobles.
For more information on Rani please visit www.ranistpucchi.com