Mother’s Day – a day to celebrate with some of the very important people in our lives. I also find it is a day of reflection. Of course, I love the fuss made by my daughter’s, the lovely cards and their thoughtful words, the beautiful flowers that now adorn the house but also I like to remember my mum who died eleven years ago but is still strongly around in my life. I constantly hear some of her favourite phrases coming out of lips – for good or bad!
I also remembered my two nieces who faced their first Mothering Sunday without their mum, my sister. As the first year goes by, each different celebration passing without her for the first time, is so incredibly hard – and the same for all those who have lost someone dear to them. My first year without my mum, I well remember skirting past the section with the Mothering Sunday cards and just filling up with the thought that I would not be buying a card for her.
However, onto more cheerful things – I wanted to share two of the cards that I received yesterday and ask if you can spot a similar vein in both of them?!
In mid February, my husband and I decided that a spot of sun was necessary, plus we had points to use up with Easy jet. We decided to visit a continent that neither of us had ever been to before – that of Africa, in fact the country of Morocco. I am sure that many of you have visited there and would probably agree that it is incredibly different in every way from life in the UK.
After a slightly hair raising 24hours in Marrakech, we were driven through the barren but fascinating Moroccan countryside where sights included goats tens of feet off the ground in trees – Argon oil trees, donkey carts and multiple men in robes with pointy hoods drinking mint tea.
We finally arrived at our seaside destination of Essaouira (pronounced Essoera) – on the Atlantic coast, just beautiful, a huge sweeping beach with camels, horses, wind surfers etc. The icing on the cake was staying in a wonderful hotel with staff that could never do enough for you. The Moroccan people, we found, were all lovely, from the moment we approached our aircraft until we arrived home in Manchester.
During our time there, I walked along the beach every day and gave myself ‘thinking’ time – this is such a gift to ourselves. I found that I started to remember my personal objectives i.e. what I wanted to achieve and that were in my control to achieve. I thought about them each day, polished them and promised myself that I would do all that I could to achieve them. Before you ask – I am still on the path but have fallen off once or twice! In retrospect, going somewhere totally out of our comfort zone was an excellent idea, opening our eyes to a different way of life, of mentality, of everything – perhaps we should try and do it every year