On Mother's Day
By Rudy Arizala
On the second Sunday of this month (13 May 2007) we celebrate "Mother´s Day. On that special day we pay special tribute, homage, respect and love to our mother. And for those whose mothers have gone to that Great Beyond, they recall to memory their love and care for their respective mothers.
As I have written in my piece "Tribute To Mothers" which appeared on pp. 25 -26 of a book A Need for Moral Recovery and Other Essays, (Makati City, Philippines, 1994):
"We owe our life, upbringing and education to our mother. She has cradled us in her bosom and put us to sleep with her lullabies when we were still a baby. We learn to utter our first word ´mother´ or ´father´from our mother. We learn our ABC´s, recognize the first written words and learn how to write our names from our mother. Above all, we learn from her how to admire and love the beauty of nature and all things around us and say our prayers. So powerful and influential is the role of a mother in our character formation and human development that William Steward Ross wrote: ´For the hand that rocks the cradle, is the hand that rules the world.´"
Love of mother for her siblings has no equal in the world. She is even willing to sacrifice her own life for the sake of her children. And this is true to all mothers - humans or to those belonging to the animal kingdom. Let me recount to you a story.
There was a huge forest fire. It burned almost all trees and vegetations in the forest. When the fire was finally put out, a forest ranger walking through the pathways in the forest, saw a crumpled ball-like feathery object under a burnt tree. Out of curiousity, he touched it with his walking stick. To his surprise, he saw the dead bird moved and heard faint chirping sounds. When he preyed open the dead crumpled body of the bird, he found inside or under its body and partially burnt wings a baby bird alive.
Apparently, the mother bird during the forest fire, instead of flying away from its nest where the baby bird was, stayed behind and protected with its body and wings the baby bird from the heat of the fire. When the branch or twigs where the nest was attached started to burn, the nest fell together with the burnt mother bird. But inside or under the body and wings of the mother bird, the baby bird was alive.
The forest ranger brought the baby bird home, nursed and fed it until it is strong enough to fly and fend for itself in the forest.
This shows that even a small creature like the bird is capable of sacrificing life out of love for its siblings. And so, how much more we human beings?
On Mother´s Day, let us offer special love, tribute and prayers for all mothers.