I want to start this month’s letter by acknowledging how many of us have complicated relationships with this weekend’s holiday. If you’re celebrating Mother’s Day with a mom you love, I hope the day is filled with family, joy, and maternal celebration. And if you’re choosing to pass the holiday quietly — or even to ignore it entirely — I hope you find your own kind of joy, in your own way. It’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend here in Bozeman, and that alone is worthy of celebration.
Josh and I were some of the lucky ones. The luckiest. We each grew up surrounded by women who inspired, supported, and raised us to be the people we are today.
When I was young, Mother’s Day was a simple celebration of my mom. My dad would take us to a grocery store on the way home from school, and we’d get her flowers or balloons. Once, I made her some really ugly art (imagine a coffee can wrapped in tissue paper with some random candle sticks inside), and she treated it like it was museum-worthy. I remember swelling with pride — she’s always known exactly how to show my sister and me just how loved we are.
With every year that’s gone by, my definition of motherhood also broadens and expands. I have a mother who raised me with unconditional love and taught me to love and live with integrity, but I’ve also had women mentors — including Meridian’s founder — who have helped me discover the woman I was meant to become. I’ve witnessed the strength and tenacity of friends who have struggled to conceive, and I’ve become stronger because of them. And I’ve watched a sister, aunts, cousins, Bozeman neighbors, and friends raise children who will make this world, this planet, a better place. Every one of them is worthy of celebration, every damn day.
Our latest issue of The Fine Line pays tribute to just a few of them. We’re calling it the Mother Figures issue to celebrate what motherhood can mean when we open our eyes, ears, and hearts to the wise women around us.
I hope each of these women’s thoughts, advice, candid humor, and humility inspire you as much as they inspire me. Spoiler: My mom is one of them. It is, after all, Mother’s Day, and my life — this whole world! — is better for having her in it.
Haley
