I’m ready to get back to work, but honoring still the women who delivered us, who fed, clothed, educated, and housed us, not always the same women. We need to honor too those who have outlived their children or are estranged. And hooray for those of us fortunate to be present to our mothers and/or our offspring. Mothering is complex, a demanding and rewarding job, and I acknowledge that no one definition fits all families.

I am lucky to have had a fine Mothers’ Day. I finished reading an excellent mystery novel set in Great Britain, the sort of fiction I devour but cannot write. In the afternoon my daughter and I lounged and watched two, or maybe it was three, episodes of NCIS, a shared addiction, while our three dogs and the cat snoozed and my thoughtful son-in-law grilled steaks and presented me with flowers that sit on my kitchen counter next to a card from my son and daughter in law.

I’m surely one of the lucky mothers who live well, and I know that my good fortune is perhaps more rare than we dare to admit. Would that all mothers were safe and satisfied.