Happy Mother’s Day! Since it has become tradition in our family to celebrate joyous occasions both in China and the United States (how many families get to celebrate two weddings by the same couple?!), I’m glad that this holiday also crosses international borders. I have always found it an important time to slow down and be thankful for my mother’s role throughout my life, and I imagine that the sentiments are quite similar for children over in China, too. Although to be honest, it was only recently I discovered that the holiday existed in China; perhaps I should have known that nobody can resist having a day to be celebrated!
In the United States, Mother’s Day has always been about showing mothers the love and appreciation that often gets overlooked in the daily grind. It is a day to pamper mothers (and often, grandmothers and other mother-figures), often through making them breakfast in bed, going to brunch, sending them to the spa, or giving gifts to make their life a little bit more comfortable. But beyond just gifts, it is a time to express love and gratitude.
Thinking back to my own childhood, it has always been the heartfelt cards and messages that my mom seemed to love the most. In grade school, we would often make Mother’s Day gifts as art projects; I remember decorating a picture frame with dried macaroni, but after all the messy gluing and painting, it was the note written in my little-kid handwriting that made my mom tear up and realize she had a family that loved and appreciated her. On reflection, perhaps this is because I am a better writer than I am a gift giver, but I suspect the true reason is that saying “I love you” matters a whole lot more than a token of appreciation.
I realize that finding that level of comfort expressing love and appreciation is tougher when you neither share decades of history nor speak a common language. But if there’s anything that I appreciate as much as my own mother’s role in raising me and shaping who I am, it’s your role in raising the woman I love the most in the world. I’m only five years into my journey with Ning(编者注:Aaron
的中国妻子), so I can only imagine how challenging those first twenty-five years were for you! But humor aside, it’s clear to me when we are all together or apart what a force for good you are in our lives. I am continuously amazed at how you have welcomed me into your life, and as we spend more time together in the coming years, I hope you can see me increasingly as a son, able to share successes and challenges, impart wisdom, and even sometimes make fun of me for my limited Chinese vocabulary.