She Deserves More than a Post

Yesterday we celebrated our mothers. Warmth and affection coloring the
internet. Yesterday, we were poets of our own light, chocking on soft
words, trying to caption our mom’s pic with the nicest language we
could master. Sadly, we are yet to obey even a single word from them,
the same people we showed the world and praised with those high poetic
languages. Social media was awash with beautiful messages to mothers;
gratitude for their immeasurable sacrifices and pledges to make them
happy. Messages that never reached the intended.

In our lives, there is no one who will ever take the place of a
mother. She believed in us when the world had reservations. The world
said we were still too young to crawl; she held our hands and guided
us to make our first step. The world said we were still too young to
walk; she smiled and encouraged us to trail blaze path of our own. So
many things the world said we would not do, she only said three;
‘Believe in God’, ‘listen to that little voice inside you’, and ‘know
that I love you’. When youthful mischief stalked our lives, she was
the light. Looking back, there were daunting dark nights in our lives,
nights with black darkness that nobody would dare face. She, only she,
laid down her fears to walk us through it.

Then we went to school, and drowned in the voices of the world. ‘How
to be successful, how to be beautiful, how to be happy, how to flirt,
how to accumulate wealth. What’s cool, what’s not cool… ’ We aligned
ourselves with the convection current. Clanged to the teachings, but
couldn’t realize that something was missing in the doctrines; how to
love our mothers. For them we’ve set apart one day, to us they have
and are giving us all their days. Our love to them we profess on the
virtual world of social media, for that’s the trend, to us they’ve
engraved our names in their heart. Blood and pain is the price they
paid for us to have life, prayers for our prosperity from their lips
rises with the sun every morning. Are the words we wrote on our
timeline yesterday enough?

Words are only words, empty and hollow, tiny and shallow. Without
diligence to put them into actions, words are only words. And they’ll
forever remain just words, without courage to prove that we meant
every single one we said; that mothers are Angels. She deserves to
hear these words of warmth and appreciation you’re telling the world
about her. She deserves the joy of knowing that you care and love her.
She deserves to know that you’re not ashamed of her, and that you’ll
gladly show her to the world. She deserves the satisfaction of being a
mother, and much more she deserve. We’ve told the world that she is an
Angel, now let’s go home and love her. Pledges of respect that dangles
on our social media walls needs execution. She deserves to hear those
beautiful words.

By Poet Dismas Okombo