A Mother Inside

I just finished the book The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. The main character, Lily, doesn't have a  mom. Lily always feels different because she doesn't have a mom. She feels less important than her mothered peers. A mentor of hers, August, offers her some great advice regarding her regret about a mother. August says, "You have to find a mother inside yourself. We all do. Even if we already have a mother, we still have to find this part of ourselves inside." The term "Our Lady" refers to Mary. I really love this quote because I think it refers to finding people who love you, even if they're not your mom.

What is a mother? I suppose that August means "mother" as the woman who raises you. I think that she means a motherly figure: someone who fixes your hair, takes care of you when you're sick, and gives you life-changing advice regarding your self-confidence. At least, that's how I think of a mother. Do I have that kind of mother? I suppose that I do, because my mom does all of the activities I listed. When I read this quote, I wondered why someone really needed a mother. I think that everyone needs a mother, or the mother that they find inside themselves, because she is a mentor. She is a good example of what the daughter wants to grow up to be.

I wondered, after reading what August had to say, if it has to be a mother, the woman who gave birth to you. Does it have to be your mother who helps you along? In my opinion, it doesn't matter who your main mentor is. As long as it is someone who loves you, someone who knows you really well, and someone who cares about you a lot, it doesn't have to be your mother that you look to. It could be an aunt, cousin, sister, friend, teacher, and many more!

August says that Lily needs to find a mother inside herself. Lily needs to take everything that makes up a mother, what I talked about before, and put it inside herself. She needs to find someone to fix her hair, someone who takes care of her when she's sick, and someone who advises her. Then, with all her advice, care, and pretty hair, Lily will have what a mother would have given her. I think that August's advice means that whatever you don't have, you need to find it somewhere else and put it inside yourself. As long as you have people who care for you, you don't need anything else. As long as you have people you can depend on to help you through your life, you don't need specific things, such as mothers. If Lily has the strength that a mother would have provided her with, she doesn't need to have a mother.

A lot of people don't have moms. I'm really lucky to have one. I think that everyone who doesn't have a mother should do what Lily does: they should find other people who care about them. Then, together, they can make a mother out of themselves and their mentors. When you don't have something that you need, you can just look to the people around you, and they can probably help you out and supply you with what you don't have.