This is a Public Service Announcement - with guitars!

It is hard to know what to write, this Mother's Day.

My mother was born in 1908. When she was buried last Saturday, there was no one in the church who had lived a single day in a world without her in it. That she is no longer here is incomprehensible -- unthinkable. Our minds -- mine at least -- simply cannot wrap themselves around the concept. The matriarch has fallen? Not possible. And yet...

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Mother's Day is one of those holidays that make me a bit wistful. My mom died in 1993. My paternal grandmother died in 1998. My maternal grandmother died in 1999. Neither of my parents had sisters, and all my aunts-by-marriage are either dead or divorced and departed from the family scene. I have no children.

Don't think that because I say all this that I'm feeling sorry for myself, because I'm not. It's just life, and the loss of loved ones is something every single person in the world goes through. And, while I've never given birth, I have given life; and that experience taught me far more about motherhood than anything outside actually bearing a child could have.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the United States. Tomorrow morning, untold numbers of women will decide to "sleep in". They'll lay in bed listening to the rest of the household prepare breakfast and act surprised when breakfast arrives complete with- if they're lucky- handmade cards, school craft projects, flowers, and promises that the kitchen will be cleaned up :-). Teens will save allowance/employment money to take Mom to dinner at the "restaurant of her choice", which somehow always ends up being a place said teen enjoys. Grown children will head to Mom's house with flowers and families in tow.  All for the purpose of honoring the women who raised, cared for, sacrificed for, and loved us.

As a mother, I look forward to seeing the joy in my daughter's eyes as she surprises me with the gift I'm not supposed to know she bought on a shopping trip with Mr. Brillig. But as a daughter- I'm once again at a loss. You see, my Mom's gone, lost to lung cancer in 2001. I'll call my mother-in-law, a woman I love dearly, but it isn't the same. My inner child will spend tomorrow in tears, sadly whispering "I want my Mommy."

It's not only those of us whose mothers have passed on who grieve this day. Adopted children who have their forever mother but grieve the birthmother they never knew. Those whose mothers are alive but through Alzheimer's or other memory-robbing conditions no longer recognize their children. Those who lost or were unable to have the children that called- or would have called- them Mother. And so on.

Is Mother's Day bittersweet for you? Come inside and join me. Bring your tales and remembrances, your laughter and your tears.

If you are preaching this weekend, or preparing intercessory prayers, or anything of a similar nature:

please, please remember -- and acknowledge -- that sitting in your congregation there may very well be men and women whose experience of "mothers" is not exactly something to celebrate.

Deb's Tea Time from yesterday reminded me to say something about Mother's Day, coming up this Sunday. (Have you made lunch reservations yet?)

The boys and I were flailing around this morning in our lectionary group, trying to figure out how to preach Mother's Day from the Gospel of John:

Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

The answer, of course, was staring us in the face: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you."

Mother's Day was a dream of Julia Ward Howe - yes, the same woman who wrote "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" - and carried to fruition after her death:

In 1872 she continued to promote the power of motherhood and womanhood for peace by calling for a “Mother’s Day for Peace,” to be celebrated on June 2. In 1873, women in 18 American cities held Mother’s Day for Peace gatherings. During Howe’s lifetime there was never any formal recognition of Mother’s Day, but Howe’s efforts influenced Anna Jarvis, whose mother, also named Anna, had organized women during the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, calling for Mothers’ Work Days.

After the death of her mother, daughter Anna Jarvis was determined to found a memorial day for women. She celebrated her first Mother’s Day on May 10, 1908 , at the Methodist church where her mother had taught Sunday school. West Virginia Governor William E. Glasscock issued the first state-recognized Mother’s Day proclamation on April 26, 1910 . Two years later, Anna was recognized as the founder of Mother’s Day by the General Methodist Conference.

President Woodrow Wilson declared an official national Mother’s Day in 1914, approving the Congressional resolution to celebrate the day every year on the second Sunday in May.

Irony abounds: not just with Howe, but with Wilson, a momma's boy of the first order (his father named him Thomas, which he rejected for his mother's maiden name) and a staunch pacifist right up until the point when he wasn't. And of course there's that whole thing about flowers and chocolates and greeting cards. (Seriously. If you haven't lined up your flowers yet, you need to do that.)

But the key to connecting Mother's Day to its roots, it seems to me, is another little piece of the text above: "I do not give to you as the world gives." A "Mother's Day for Peace" is as counter-cultural as it ever was.

It's time to reclaim that piece of our history. Do yourself a favor and click on the Mother's Day ad to your right. You can watch a video with a number of women - including Felicity Huffman and Vanessa Williams among other celebrities - talking about Mother's Day and peace.

And after you're done with that, you can buy an e-card in honor of your favorite mother figure. The proceeds will go to help a ten-year-old Iraqi girl receive medical treatment in South Carolina - and to receive prosthetics to replace the legs she lost in the war.

That, my friends, is giving not as the world gives. And for God's sake, if you haven't gotten your mother a card yet, what excuse do you have?