Did you know that Mother’s Day was created as an opportunity to stand against war?

Here is the first stanza of a piece of writing called The Mothers’ Day Proclamation written by Julia Ward Howe, a feminist and abolitionist, in 1870.

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

You can see the rest of the Mother’s Day Proclamation here – it’s full of thoughts as relevant today as they were over a hundred years ago when it was written.

As you take some time to reflect on the contributions mothers have made the world over, think on one of the most precious; life. And another element so strongly the bedrock of what we think of as motherhood; love. Let life and love stand as sacred in our personal days and nights, and take a moment in it all to take a stand for both.

May the suffering cease. May the wars end. May the human family live in peace.