My eyes caught them and I wondered why I hadn't noticed them before. They stood on the other side of the baggage carousel in the baggage reclaim area. We were waiting for our luggage.
I looked at the young and really pretty mother with her equally pretty daughter, but it wasn't their looks that caught my attention, it was the cuff on their arms. The daughter's arm was chained to the Mum's arm with a spiral rubber cuff. I had never seen that before so I stared for a few more seconds before looking away. The Mum was obviously trying to ensure that her daughter didn't get lost. Whenever the little girl seemed to be straying far as she pranced about, the Mum would pull her back.
To be honest it was a funny sight as the little girl looked like a dog on a leash.
As I looked on I realised that some other people were staring too but the Mother seemed not to care. She is probably used to the stares and cared only about one thing - the safety of her child.
As I watched them, I wondered if the little girl knew the woman holding her would gladly bleed for her. I wondered if in her state of innocence she knew this woman would go to the ends of the earth for her.
As I watched them my mind drifted to a question I have had to answer one time too many.
"Are you the last child?" It is usually followed with "are you the first?" when I answer in the negative. "Then why does your Mum keep calling you?"
I once told a colleague who asked while a training was on that "it's because her baby is far from home. She calls us all like this, she can't help it."
This is true.
A mother cannot help the way she feels about her child. In the Greek categorization of Love, the love a Mother has for her child is categorized as 'Phileo', to love 'because'. So a mother loves 'because this is her child'.
From experience however, I'd say a mother's love is more like 'Agape', to love 'in spite of'. Mothers love in spite of their children's shortcomings and mistakes.
A mother's love stays in spite of, it never gives up. I can't count how many times I have offended my Mum but I always know she'd never let me go, no matter what. There are a few things I am 'sure' of, this is one of them.
As my mind drifts to the present I watch the Mother and her daughter, they had picked up their luggage and were walking out. Mine was yet to come so I had to wait but as I waited, I thought to myself - we expresslove for our mothers more.
We should do better, give better and act better. We should do more to let them know we love them more.
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