Summary
May 10, 2026, is Mother’s Day. My wish is for us to unite as human beings to celebrate. United we can overthrow authoritarians across the world. United we can achieve peace. One way to unite is to listen to each other. Listen to another person’s story. You may learn something. Everyone has a story. Every story is important. Every story affects how a person interacts with the world around them. You can learn from someone else’s story. Just listen.
Mother’s Day 2026: Celebrating Together for Peace
May 10, 2026, is Mother’s Day. Celebrating together for peace is my wish for this Mother’s Day. I truly believe that we will achieve peace if we unite and stand against all authoritarians, together.
Let’s explore Mother’s Day 2026 and celebrating together for peace.
How We Create Alliances
In every part of our lives, we create alliances. Our alliances derive from common dreams and common interests and common experiences.
Think of the alliances in your life. You know your allies on a level that you do not know people who are not part of your alliances. Similarly, your allies know you in ways they do not know people outside of the alliance.
Why do you know your allies so well? Because, you know their stories and they know your story, at least part of your story.
Everyone Has a Story
Everyone has a story. We can only know someone’s story if we ask them to tell us. And, if we choose to listen.
I know that it is not easy to listen. Listening is not simply a passive activity. Listening requires attention. Listening requires empathy. Listening requires being able to take another’s perspective. Listening requires seeing beyond our selfishness. Listening requires being interested in learning something. Listening requires the willingness to welcome a stranger. Listening requires having an open heart, even when your heart might break by what you are about to hear.
Everyone has a story. Every nation has their story. Every culture has a story. Every ethnic group has a story. Every religious community has a story. Every family has a story. And, the stories are unique to the person, to the community, to the language, to the culture, to the geographical location, to the region, to the era, to the climate, to the intersection between cultures and groups of people.
Everyone has a story. Every story is relevant. Every story informs how an individual interacts with their world. Every story is different.
And, every story is similar. There are universal themes in every story. Birth, love, joy, suffering, growth, illness, ageing, transcendence of obstacles, learning, hope, challenges, fear, redemption, death. All of these themes, in my opinion, fall on a spectrum. All of these themes are familiar to each of us.
Know Your Neighbour’s Story: Celebrating Together for Peace
Celebrating together for peace should be easy for us. I believe that we are more alike than different. We are all human beings. That is a pretty significant characteristic to share with another being, right? Peace should come easily to us, right?
Peace can only be accomplished if we unite. We can only unite if we recognize our connectedness. We will only recognize our connectedness if we acknowledge our similarities. We are all members of the human race: need I say more?
As humans, we love to categorize our world. We have done so to our detriment. Our categorizations are our own social constructs to which we have lent importance and rigidity. Our categorizations are not truths: they derive from a perspective. In a world of relativity, perspective reeks of weakness and instability and uncertainty. Yet, we have cemented certain perspectives, deemed them to be stone cold true. And, they are not rigidly true.
For example, when we categorize each other, we are necessarily impacted by our biases. Our implicit bias may be invisible to us. A friend may be the person who signals to us that we have an implicit bias. Or, it may be a stranger who identifies our implicit bias to us. Can we accept this constructive criticism?
Yes, we can accept the constructive criticism of a stranger. We must be open to hear their story. We must listen to them. We must be willing to assume a new perspective, perhaps trying to see the world with their eyes. Learning their story will help us to adopt a perspective we had not previously considered. Then, we will learn something about ourselves.
Celebrating Peace through Story Sharing
Stories have been passed down in all cultures for generations. We are a story-telling bunch, we human beings. Stories may be written, may be passed by oral tradition, or may be encoded in our very DNA. Yes, stories affect our DNA. So, some of us may not even know the stories we carry within us.
I know the stories of some of my ancestors. I feel some of those stories in my bones. You may look at me and not see the stories. That does not make the stories any less relevant to me. Those stories have contributed to the perspective I espouse when I interact with the world. And, my perspective affects how I view the United States of America.
The United States of America is the place where I was born. By far, it is not the place which infuses my spirit with the stories of my ancestors who hail from many places on earth. Because, I was not raised here. The stories of certain groups of my ancestors inform my existence more than other groups. Certainly, that is true for most everyone in the USA.
My perspective is undoubtedly biased by the stories I hold in heart and in my bones. My implicit bias.
And, I can accept constructive criticism. I believe most people can accept constructive criticism. How the criticism is delivered can make a world of difference, literally. And, should you or I decide to share constructive criticism with someone, it would behoove us to listen to their story. Perhaps, each of us can learn to adopt a different perspective when we listen to each other.
Mother’s Day 2026: Celebrating Together for Peace
In order for us to achieve peace in our world, we need to start listening to each other. Why not start by celebrating together for peace on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2026?
Listen for the stories. Hear the other person’s words and hold those stories in your heart. Embrace their stories as if they were your own. Imagine what life might have been had you lived your entire life with those stories. Hidden from the world. Stories which shaped their lives and the lives of their parents and grandparents. Stories which you cannot even imagine.
Stories of birth, love, joy, suffering, growth, illness, ageing, transcendence of obstacles, learning, hope, challenges, fear, redemption, death. Stories of ethnic cleansing. Stories of genocide. Stories of exploitation. Stories of being raped and pillaged. Stories of being an enslaved people. These stories pepper our collective histories over millennia.
Stories of ethnic cleansing in the 18th century or ethnic cleansing in the 21st century: those stories always include separation of husbands and wives, separation of lovers, separation of children from parents, separation of friends, starvation, being hunted, succumbing to diseases, being sent away to a place where nothing is familiar and perhaps to a place where no one is welcoming.
Mother’s Day 2026: Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
So, we mustn’t look at someone and assume that we know their story. You know the adage: you make an ass out of you and me when you assume anything. All of us must try to listen to each other. Because, listening to your story makes me free when I realize that your story is important for me to hold in my heart and to cherish.
And, the corollary is also true. Listening to each other is mutually beneficial. We learn from each other. We learn to appreciate each other. We learn to cherish our humanity and to mourn our collective lack of humanity towards each other. This is not a competition. This is a learning opportunity for all of us.
Call to Action: Mother’s Day 2026 Celebrating Together in Peace
Listen to each other.
Together and united we shall overcome authoritarianism. Let’s celebrate Mother’s Day 2026, together in peace.
Immerse yourself in music to inspire you on our quest to save democracy and give peace a chance.
Please give generously to local mutual aid agencies. Your neighbours will thank you.
Disclaimer: The content of this post is not meant to substitute for a consultation with your healthcare professional team.
The content of this post includes the personal opinion of the author who is justifiably exercising her First Amendment Right to speak freely, including employing monikers for persons mentioned in the post.
If you are thinking of hurting yourself or of hurting someone else, please CALL 9-1-1; CALL 9-8-8; or GO TO the nearest emergency room.
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