Every day I am reminded of how fortunate I am to have my mother around. She is everything I could ever want in a mother. You could say that she is #MotherGoals.

She wakes me up every morning and greets me with a warm kiss. Not all mothers will do that, but mine does. So I’ll get up in the morning and get ready for the day. I’m very fussy about my food, so sometimes I’ll prepare something other than what mother has already prepped for me in the fridge. She always insists on fruits and vegetables, but a man loves his bacon!

By the time breakfast is over, I’m ready for work. And as soon as I step out of the house, I’m welcomed by the sight of the most beautiful garden. It’s the first thing I see every morning when I leave the house, and everyone knows that nobody grows plants quite like my mother. She grows anything from elegant flowers to magnificent trees. It’s quite impressive.

On my way to work, I shiver at the crisp morning wind. Fortunately, I always keep my wardrobe well-stocked with warm clothes. In a sense, all of my clothes come from my mother as well. She doesn’t have the resources to actually stitch up all the clothes herself, but she supplies all of the local garment factories with materials she grows from her garden I mentioned earlier. Cotton fabric, linen fabric, silk fabric… you name it, she supplies it. She never ceases to amaze me.

As I go about my day, I am usually exhausted by the end of my shift. I head home and I quickly crash into my bed. As my day comes to a close, mother even dims the lights for me because she knows it’s time for me to rest. She is seriously ALWAYS there for me. Even when I am sick, she nurses me back to full health using only the best medicines. And wouldn’t you believe it? She makes the medicine herself!

She does all of this for me, and yet...

I am slowly killing her.

 

In a sense, I’ve been doing it without even realizing it. When I wake up in the morning to prepare myself some breakfast, there are times when I don’t finish my food. So I give it to my mother to eat, even though I know her body doesn’t process meat well. But she never wastes food, so she’ll have no choice but to eat it. Sometimes I don’t even clean up properly and end up throwing trash into her garden. Seeing that makes me feel guilty at times, but I always say she’ll get over it.

Also, my mother’s a huge conservation nut. But I always ignore my mother’s pleas to stop using up so much water and electricity. I mean, I get that I need to be a little more conservative because not everyone is as fortunate to have the resources I have, but I simply forget sometimes to turn the lights off before I leave for work, and I really enjoy my long showers. But hey, everyone does it. She’ll get over it.

On top of that, my mother hates when I use disposable plastic and don’t make an effort to reuse it. She’s actually pretty allergic, too. Her body can’t deal with plastic, and though she’s always providing me with better alternatives, I honestly just can’t bother myself to make the change. It’s such an inconvenience, and I know many others would agree. So she ends up just dealing with all my plastic rubbish, despite what plastic does to her body. But I know she’ll get over it.

But that’s not even the worst part. There was even a time someone offered me money to physically hurt my mother. I’m not sure what she had done to deserve this, but they offered a LOT of money. Shamefully, I took the offer. Since then, I’d abuse my mother on several occasions, and I’d get paid for it. But I’m not an only child, and I know my other siblings do the same thing. That should justify my actions… right?

Either way, mother lets us have our way with her for the money. And though it seems like she can endure anything, I’ve noticed that she doesn’t look quite the same these days. I’m not so sure she will ever really get over it, either.

I don't know what it is about me, but I can't seem to stop hurting her. Every now and then I will make a promise to myself to be better, but I always end up coming back to abuse her even more. I'm not sure if I will ever stop.

...Please forgive me, my dear mother Earth.