forget the calendar

I'm not a big fan of giving gifts or sending cards just because of some date on the calendar. Mother's Day is problematic for me for various reasons. Though I had loving parents, I spent most of my childhood in school dorms, and after I reached adulthood, my mother and I mostly lived on opposite sides of the Pacific. Then she died much earlier than she should have, leaving behind far too few memories to comfort me.

Furthermore, I certainly don't want my own kids (both of whom I kept close to my side while they were growing up) to express any appreciation they might have for me just because it's "Mother's Day." Although.... if that's the only day I can get any appreciation (assuming I deserve any), I will take it gratefully.

So, back to my own mother. One of the few-but-sweet memories I have of very early childhood is of my mother singing to us kids after she had tucked us in bed. I would sing those same songs softly to myself in later childhood, and even as late as early adulthood, during lonely or desperate nights when I lived far from home among strangers in a land that was strange to me.

cradles and lullabies

This is an image of an Ainu cradle, called a shinta. The Ainu are the indigenous people of northern Japan. The writing that accompanies the image is from the refrain of an old Japanese lullaby.

I sent the original etegami to my writer friend Linda Austin, whose work has inspired my etegami in the past (click here to see related post), but this image is also posted on the Mama Lisa's World website, as an illustration for a series of posts on lullabies from around the world.

Mama Lisa' World is chock full of cultural information and fun activities. If you have young children in your life, or you are involved in any way with international music and culture, you'll find lots of cool stuff there.