A reflection of Mother’s Day and the Duality of Love and Loss

IMother’s Day is often painted as a joyful celebration—a time to honor our mothers, embrace our children, and reflect on the deep, indescribable love that comes with motherhood. A love so profound that no words can truly capture it, yet every mother understands it.

But for many, this day is not just about joy—it also holds a quiet, often unspoken weight. Mother’s Day can be both beautiful and painful. It can highlight love and loss, gratitude and grief, connection and longing, all at once.

Some of us are celebrating while also mourning the mother we have lost.

Some of us are holding our children close while aching for the one we never got to meet.

Some of us are longing for another child while trying to be present with the ones we have.

Some of us are navigating motherhood alone, wishing for the support we deeply need.

Some of us are carrying the grief of pregnancy loss, stillbirth, or the unimaginable pain of losing a child.

And with this grief can come guilt—guilt for not feeling as happy as we think we should, guilt for the emotions we carry, guilt for what we wish we could give our families but cannot.

But here’s the truth: the duality of feeling is not only normal—it’s human. We can feel deep gratitude for what we have while also grieving what we have lost. We can love fiercely while also longing deeply. We can experience moments of joy while also carrying sorrow in the same breath.

As Jamie Anderson so beautifully put it, Grief is just love with nowhere to go." The pain we feel is a reflection of the love we hold, and that love does not disappear—it simply finds new ways to exist within us.

Some may say, "Be grateful for what you have," and while gratitude is powerful, loss has a way of making us the most grateful for what remains, even as we carry the weight of what is gone. The ability to feel both is not a contradiction—it is the very essence of being human.

So if this Mother’s Day feels tender, if your heart feels both full and heavy, know this: you are not alone. However you feel today is okay. However you choose to honor this day is enough. Give yourself permission to feel it all, because in doing so, you are honoring your love, your loss, and your own beautifully complex humanity. 💛