May invites us to celebrate motherhood in all its complexity. It’s a time for honoring the women who raised us, the daughters we’re raising, and reflecting on the women we are still becoming. Yet for many, Mother’s Day can stir a mix of gratitude and grief, closeness and conflict. The mother-daughter relationship—so intimate, so formative—is often one of the most tender and tangled parts of a woman’s life.

Grief is love with nowhere to go ( I first heard this on WandaVision). But when we allow healing to take place, we find that love transforms. It moves from pain to remembrance, from longing to gratitude, from loss to a deep assurance that our loved ones are never truly gone.

Do you believe in second chances? Our God sure does, and I have personal experience to back that up. Sometimes it is hard to know, and even accept this truth because we can mess up so bad or take umbrage with the “hand we’ve been dealt” because it doesn’t seem fair. It feels like there is no way our messes can actually be redeemed or restored. But God is in the redemption and restoration business.

I lived a pretty charmed, typical suburban life. Deciding at a young age that I had dreams and goals. I was going to see the world, have a career in the fashion industry, live in California, marry an incredible man, and have a few kids? Sure why not! Live in a cozy beach house and maybe even own a vineyard! Then… life happened.