What Mom Wouldn’t Want This?

What’s a gift worth giving for Mother’s Day?  We all hope it’s something that really matters.

I’m hoping for “World Peace.”

And that’s what it was meant to be! The first Mother’s Day was an inspiring call to action issued in 1870 after the US Civil War, with the Mother’s Day Proclamation, by Julia Ward Howe.   

Tired of raising boys to fight and then send them off to battle, heartbroken at the bloodshed (and for what?) this proclamation trumpets:

 “Arise, then women of this day…“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.” 

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice.”

Boom…. Now that’s my kind of Mother’s Day.  

Lasting Peace.   Kids taught to love each other and grow up to create a better world.   Nations striving for justice and a future together.   

Whether you’re a parent or not, what world do you long to create?   How will you speak your truth, raise your family, stand your ground?   How do we recreate the future?

THIS is why I coach.

The original proclamation follows, and Julia Ward Howe was a well-known abolitionist and writer, also known for the rousing Battle Hymn of the Republic, “Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory!”

MOTHER’S DAY PROCLAMATION
Boston, 1870

“Arise, then… women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
We will not have 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.

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says:  Disarm, Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
nor violence vindicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
at the summons of war,
let women now leave all that may be left of home
for a great and earnest day of council.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means
whereby the great human family can live in peace,
each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask
that a general congress of women, without limit of nationality,
may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient,
and at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
to promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
the amicable settlement of international questions,
the great and general interests of peace.“

~ Julia Ward Howe