Mothers Day

photo by Linda Sartori

Mothers Day was started  as a protest to the carnage of the Civil War by women who had lost their sons. Here is the original Mother’s Day Proclamation, written in Boston, 1870 by Julia Ward Howe:

“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have heart, whether our baptism be that of water or tears! Say firmly: ‘We will not have our great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall 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 women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limits of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period considered with its objects to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, and the great and general interests of peace.”

         Women all over the world are still losing their children to wars. Let’s take Julia Ward Howe’s eloquent plea to heart. Let’s look at our own lives, and search out where and how each of us can make peace. How will you contribute to a peaceful world?