La joie d’une mère est une lumière qui jaillit jusque sur l’avenir et le lui éclaire, mais qui se reflète sur le passé pour lui donner le charme des souvenirs.

…she rejoiced as only mothers can in the good fortunes of their children.

...A mother is the one who fills your heart in the first place. She teaches you the nature of happiness: what is the right amount, what is too much, and the kind that makes you want more of what is bad for you. A mother helps her baby flex her first feelings of pleasure. She teaches her when to later exercise restraint, or to take squealing joy in recognizing the fluttering leaves of the gingko tree, to sense a quieter but more profound satisfaction in chancing upon an everlasting pine. A mother enables you to realize that there are different levels of beauty and therein lie the sources of pleasure, some of which are popular and ordinary, and thus of brief value, and others of which are difficult and rare, and hence worth pursuing.

Mother's life flowed radiant. Flourescent-tipped waves on incoming tides.

But instead my mother was the happiest woman in Cameroon as her daughter that she long waited 15 years to bring to the world was carrying a whole country in her hands.

Begin, sweet Babe, with smiles thy Mother know.

A mother's pride, a father's joy.

My mother is like the bright light in the sky, a doe on the hillsides. She is the morning star, shining even at noon-time. She is precious cornelian, a topaz from Marhaci.

And, because she so illumined and glorified her clan,
She brought to every father, every mother through the empire,
Happiness when a girl was born rather than a boy.

As a mother you have got to have a view for now and a view for the future.

[My mother] is a lovely person, a beautiful soul, a really joyous heart and I am hoping that I will be like her. She set a bar. She showed me what it is like to live on a day to day basis.

They always looked back before turning the corner, for their mother was always at the window to nod and smile, and wave her hand to them. Somehow it seemed as if they couldn't have got through the day without that, for whatever their mood might be, the last glimpse of that motherly face was sure to affect them like sunshine.

... From the earliest days of her married life, Mrs. Heath had found all her pleasure to consist in making her home happy. To be sure, in her young days, change of scene, frequent visiting and parties were not deemed essentials to the health and happiness of the middle-class wife. The bringing up of children was not delegated to ignorant, careless nursemaids, but was the first duty and delight of mothers. Neither in her day were children looked upon as burdens, or a woman pitied because of the cares of her large family. Happiness was then found in these cares, and peace of mind in the performance of the blessed duties of maternity—duties laid upon woman by Providence and nature, and which she may not seek to abrogate without ill consequences to all her race.

Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven; and every countenance, bright with smiles, and glowing with innocent enjoyment, is a mirror transmitting to others the rays of a supreme and ever-shining benevolence.