Sunday Salon: Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. And I'm a mother. So you could be excused for thinking that I was either served breakfast in bed or taken to a brunch by my adoring family, pampered and fussed over. I know that many mothers out there love that. I, however, am an odd duck and very little could appeal to me less. Instead, so far, I have stayed camped out in my jammies, holed up in bed, snacked on intentionally saved leftovers from a chick pea salad I made several days ago (which is better if it sits 24 hours or more), and read a book. Yes, the entire book. I have wallowed in the quiet, alone time. In all fairness to my family, they did all come in and wish me a Happy Mother's Day, give me cards, and gifts, and then headed off to their own interesting stuff. I did talk to my mom and my mother-in-law to wish them happy days too. But mostly I've been given the gift of uninterrupted time to read without having a single request of me even once. Bliss! I'm pretty sure in another century I'd have become a hermit (not a nun because their days might have been quiet but they were quite scheduled). Lest you think I am completely insensible to the day, the book I read is about a mother, the loss of her mother when she was young and her subsequent awful stepmother, her daughters, and the long held secrets of families.

If you are a mother, I hope you're having the exact sort of Mother's Day you most desire, whether it fits popular portrayal or not. And no matter who you are, I hope you're finding the reading time you want today.

My reading travels this week took me all sorts of different places. I went out to a beach house on Long Island with a play group fraught with tensions. I visited a young girl who traveled around with her father and his bees after her mother abandoned her. I watched as another young girl's mother, fed up with and dissatisfied with her life, disappeared, first emotionally and then in truth. I sympathized as a young woman tried to make sense of her own desires as she untangled her love life. And then finally, I rooted for an older woman wanting to live her life her way as she grappled with and brought repressed memories to light. Can't wait to see where the next one takes me. Where did your reading travels take you this past week?