(Editor’s note: Jacque Niles helps out from time to time on SD SportScene from covering games to writing feature stories. She has written a column on Mother’s Day offering perspective from a very busy mom. Hope you enjoy it and to all moms everywhere, Happy Mother’s Day. – Dave Vilhauer)

I ran across an old Twitter thread of mine the other day. It was about Mother’s Day and parenthood, posted back when I only had two kids (the bigger ones, not the current toddlers). It was an interesting read – as my previous musings occasionally are – but the final chapter in that thread said this:

“The point is this. Celebrate. There is brokenness and pain and loss and sheer exhaustion in this world, to be sure, but we are not without hope. Let your mourning inform your celebration, yes. But let the hope inform it so much more.”

I wrote that in 2018, one year before my son was born, two years before COVID tried to shut down the world and four years before we made this wild transition from two kids at home (man-to-man defense) to three (zone, at best).

And never have I needed to hear myself more.

This transition has been, well, rough, and the throes of motherhood are real. I’m not sure three kids in four years is medically advisable or not, but I can guarantee you it’s not at all advisable if you value your sleep.

I can’t tell you how many times in the past five weeks I’ve disappeared into a dark room so my tears wouldn’t interrupt my kids’. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are pretty much standard daily fare around here, and if ever I try to sneak in an interview, chances are you may end up hearing one of my kids clamoring for attention in the background.

And frankly, it’s a good thing Dave is a meticulous editor, because even this column has had its share of unauthorized contributions.

Plus, I don’t know if you’ve watched the news lately, but the world is indeed a broken place. One doesn’t have to look very far to find evidence of that.

It’s enough to send me back into that dark, lonely bedroom and bury my head in the blankets and never want to come out. 

But here’s the thing. Hope is real. And darkness, try as it might, can never snuff out light.

So, celebrate Mother’s Day. Look for the light, whether in the way a toddler dances or a baby smiles or the simple grace of a new day.