Mothers: "Baking Serving Caring Listening" Edition

The Roches: I Love My Mom

[purchase] - out of stock on their own website


Susan McKeown: Mother of Mine

[purchase]


Rachel Bissex: Dancing with My Mother

[purchase]


Annie Gallup: Blue Dress

[purchase]

I have been a mess for the last week, in anticipation/dread of this holiday that is everywhere (television, radio, newspaper, magazines, e- and snail-mail solicitations promoting gifts and flowers, department stores)... but that pains me so much this year, because it is my first Mother's Day without my mom - she passed away July 19, 2009 and her absence remains heartbreakingly fresh...

I really just want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head... but my own children need me, so I will attempt to be the best mother I can be under the circumstances, and they completely understand - inside, I feel lost and frightened and empty (who do I call/mail a card/send flowers to now?)...

I know Mom is with me in spirit, I retain indelible memories and she lives on in my character traits (the good and the bad) - I dream of her often and I realize she'd want me to move ahead and through rather than stay stuck and wounded...

I meant to post these songs throughout the week but it just seemed less wrenching to do it all at once (the band-aid removal theory, you know) - the last one, by definition of our terms (post songs with a word for "mother " in the title) is cheating, but it so suits the intention of the theme that I hope I'll be forgiven...