Michael Intravartolo: Happy Mother's Day Moms!

Having experienced first-hand how a phenomenal mother raises a child I am in complete awe of good mothers world-wide. That is why I would like to combine two posts that were previously written for mothers on LiveSpin because I think these posts sum up (well, as close as you can) what a good mother is.

Post One:

Today is the day where we recognize mother's all over the world for the job they do. A mother is probably the most influential person in your world and I'd like to offer some simple words:

"We love you because you understood every single thing we tried to do. You were always there to lend us a helping hand and we love you most of all because you're you. No matter what the world said about us, your kindness always saw us through. We love you for the way you never doubted us but most of all we love you just... because you're you. Happy Mother's Day Moms!"

Post Two:

Good mother's world wide deserve today to take a breath, maybe receive a gift, and just reminisce about the blessing of being a mother. And to those good mothers world-wide, I solute and commend you! There is nobody more influential than a mother on her children. Mother's seem to embody an instant connection with their children, that seems to be impossible to explain, and honestly, who really wants to explain something that amazing.

Everyone, at some point, has had a mother, some only briefly, some for longer than their own lives.

So in a way, mothers are a universal human constant, worthy of more reflection than the annual "glance" by which society romanticizes Mom.

Motherhood never has been some idyllic state of joy and beauty, like a detergent commercial set in a pastoral meadow in springtime. Being a good mother is difficult, frequently disappointing and often painful in body and heart.

And, like the rest of humanity, not all mothers are good.

At its most primal level, motherhood is a circumstance of nature. Being a good mother demands an adherence to the virtues of inner strength, unselfishness and forgiveness for betrayals of maternal love, great and small.

So let us thank all the good mothers who opened our eyes to their own faith and taught us the prayers, spoken or otherwise, that gave at least limited expression to the yearnings for meaning in some of life's earliest confusions.

Thank them for the order they created in our little corners of the cosmos, for the maddening order they demanded of bed covers, closets and kitchen cabinets. Such celestial harmony is an ideal for which a mother's lack of perfect success is not judged too harshly by a compassionate and understanding God.

Thank the good mothers who carved out the splinters with needles soaked in rubbing alcohol, scolded the pained jerks of resistance, then blotted away the tears and pulled a sobbing face into the softness of a comforting bosom.

Thank them for personal plans or projects delayed, or abandoned, so that a class assignment could be completed on the weekend before it was due.

Thank them for bearing the bone-numbing chill of autumn afternoons and the searing heat of summer while their progeny toiled in the playing fields that were supposed to emulate the lessons of life, but seldom did -- and good mothers explained why.

Thank them for their rare confessions of inadequacy, even apology, which introduced young minds to a new, perplexing notion of vulnerability: that of a parent struggling to make sense of a confusing, complicated world, too.

Thank the good mothers who labored patiently but firmly, often against rebelliousness and indifference, to help their children negotiate the torrid currents of their hormone-induced bewilderment upon exchanging childhood for adolescence.

Thank them especially for the sage advice and insistence that bewilderment never become an excuse for suspending moral judgment.

Thank the good mothers who refused to bend an inch against the overtures for leniency from offspring straining under the duress of peer pressure, even though "all the other kids' parents let them go." Good mothers have a trusted and trustworthy rejoinder: "I'm not all the other parents."

Thank those good mothers, though, for understanding as well that properly focused anger and strict enforcement of exceptional standards are most effective when leavened with patience and an openness to explanation.

Thank them for the times they sat quietly in those dark hours when a young person's world surely would never again see light -- after a failure to make the team, after a failed science project, or after a tender affair of the heart had been crushed so cruelly. Just being there was a comfort.

Thank the good mothers who, these many years later, hold their peace when witnessing the foibles and missteps that they committed at about the same stage in their own lives. With time comes the patience to understand that most missteps are remediable, but that unsolicited advice can sow seeds of long-standing resentments.

Thank the good mothers who, their own children grown and gone, give of themselves to those in their communities who may lack some material need, or who may be ill or simply lonely. They give generously because they have practiced diligently most of their lives at being needed.

Thank the good mothers, entering the twilight of their earthly sojourn, for their endurance, their wisdom and their example. May all the sons and daughters of these women -- especially the young mothers and fathers who are not yet so good -- learn the best that their own mothers have to teach, and have taught.

Thank them, yes, but also remember them. Their lives are models, an invitation to become what we all should strive to be.

A variation of this column appeared Mother's Day 2006, and I thought it worth repeating.

Having seen first-hand the impact a non willing mother, who is a family member, have on her child completely disgusts me. I cannot and I will never not be able to understand how a mother is not willing to put her child first and sacrifice whatever it may be for the sake of the child. Frankly, I am also shocked that the United States as a whole does not place more emphasis on the importance of being a mother, but we will do a follow-up post that dives more in depth on this subject.