A Mother’s Love

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SONY DSCGone is her child.

Gone are her memories.

Everything is . . .gone.

Please welcome  Author Barb Han to Everybody Needs a Little Romance
Gone_ByBarbHan-800x1200

The month of February is all about love. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, who can help but think about it? Walk into the grocery, and, BAM, red hearts and roses are everywhere. Big box stores? They have all the romantic paraphernalia covered too. Love is everywhere. And if I really think about it, our obsession with love isn’t confined to the month of February. It’s just harder to get away from then.

In reality, we think about love in some form or fashion for the other eleven months as well. Why is that? We need it to ensure survival of our species for one. That’s true. Finding that connection with someone else, reproducing, is written into our DNA. But does it go deeper than that?

I think it does.

The first love we encounter isn’t romantic at all. For most of us, it begins long before we’re even born. It starts in our mothers’ hearts and grows like seeds in their bellies (just like we do). Some people say there is no stronger love than a mother’s love for her child. Being a mother myself, I wouldn’t argue against the point.

This is one of my favorite quotes by Sunita Sharma:
“The palm on your fevered brow, the soft kisses when you need them most, the grip that steadies you on rocky roads, the hand that feeds and nurtures you, the voice that tells you that you are loved, the shadow that walks beside you unconditional and enduring…a mother’s love.”

But what happens when it all goes wrong? What happens when it’s overbearing and just too much to handle? When it suffocates? Or, as unthinkable as this is to me, doesn’t exist at all?
How does that shape us?

Prisons are filled with men and women who didn’t get enough love, enough nurturing, enough, dare I say, mothering? Real mother’s love is like stepping into the sunshine where plants (and children) flourish. The flip side? The absence of it finds us in a cold, stark, and dark place.

For a writer, it’s fertile ground. I guess that’s why there’s some aspect of mother’s love in each of my books. The power of it. The need for it. The complications it sometimes brings. A mother’s love is one of the most powerful forces in the universe and that concept is far too fascinating for me not to explore.

My mother helped shape me with her unwavering belief I could do anything I set my mind to. She never doubted me no matter how outlandish my goal might’ve been. I’m grateful for that. For her.
How has your mother’s love shaped you?

To learn more about Barb Han, or watch the trailer of Gone, check out http://www.barbhan.com/  Barb will be doing a book giveaway to one lucky commenter.  Barb, thanks for joining us today.  Powerful post.