What I Really Want For Mother’s Day is For Life To Go Back To Normal

My husband has been asking me all week what I want for Mother’s Day, and I keep telling him I don’t know.

I just don’t know.

Do I want the house cleaned or the laundry done?

Do I want flowers and perhaps a gift card?

Do I want a special dinner planned?

Do I want to sleep in and then take a long nap, too?

Sure, my car needs to be cleaned and my floors do, too.

And a fresh bouquet and a gift card would be a lovely thing to receive.

Dinner someone else makes sounds nice, along with a clean kitchen afterward.

But I don’t care about those things right now.

I just don’t.

And I realize that what I want I can’t have.

Because what I want is for everything and everyone to be OK.

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I want my kids to have their lives back.

I want my son to be on his eighth grade Washington D.C. trip and to be spending his last weeks of school celebrating his graduation. I want to watch his soccer tournaments every weekend and have that end of the year party I promised him.

I want my daughter to be spending time with all her friends and working a job to save for college. I want her to have the summer experience she’s been excitedly planning for years.

I want our finances to be secure and our futures, too.

I want my kids to look forward to something, anything really.

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I want our summer vacation back on and all the camps and pools to open.

I want to go out grocery shopping without worrying about what will be left on the shelves or who is wearing a mask.

I want my mom to come out of her lonely isolation and celebrate her 80th birthday with friends and family near.

I want the countless people suffering from this horrific virus to be healed.

I want the front-line health care workers to feel relief and restoration from their tireless work.

I want all of those who have lost so much to somehow gain it back.

I want all of those grieving, at the very least, to have the opportunity to honor their loved ones lost.

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I want families reunited and friends hugging and crowds gathering during the wonderful summer months.

I want weddings to be held and graduations too. I want people to be sharing in life’s greatest moments together.

And I want our economy to recover and people to be employed.

I want all the pain and anger and fear to be fought with love and peace and hope, not hate and violence and lies.

I want an answer, a solution, to this horrid mess the world is in.

Oh, I want so much right now.

What do I want for Mother’s Day?

Forget the flowers and cards and lavish gifts.

Forget sleeping in and having a special day . . . 

I just want everything and everyone to be OK.