Not Your Typical Mother’s Day Message: A love note to your life
May 05, 2025Mother’s Day can be a beautiful celebration, but it can also stir complex emotions—especially if you are grieving, estranged, child-free by choice or circumstance, or navigating layered relationships with mothering and being mothered. Whether your mother is no longer living, you never knew her well, you are a mother, or you’ve chosen a different path altogether, this day can shine a light on what matters most: love, legacy, and the stories that shape us.
That’s why, this May, I’m inviting you to turn inward.
At Willow, we believe that end-of-life planning isn’t about getting your affairs in order. It’s about getting your heart in order. And this month we’re focusing on you getting to know you.
Instead of (or in addition to) celebrating someone else, what if you used this moment as an invitation to reflect on your life—who you are, how you’ve become that way, and what matters most to you now?
All month long at Willow, our offerings will support you in doing just that. Through three heart-centered workshops—each designed to foster reflection and self-awareness—you’ll be guided to explore your values, your story, and your legacy. Not for anyone else’s approval, but for your own clarity, healing, and growth.
A Heartfelt Practice for Mother’s Day
We begin with the Heart Will®—a written message that reflects on your life, what you’ve lived, what you’ve learned, what you want others to understand about you, and the impact you hope to have. It’s not a legal will. It’s not a to-do list. It’s a love note to your life and a profound message for those who matter most to you—whether they ever read it or not.
It’s written to a broad audience: future generations, your community, your chosen family. Some people arrange to have is shared at their goodbye ritual; others leave it to be discovered after they die. But the real gift lies in the process itself.
Because when you pause to consider what you want to leave behind, you clarify how you want to live now.
Prompts to Help You Begin
Writing your Heart Will® can feel especially powerful around Mother’s Day. This season reminds us of the relationships that shape us and the care we offer—to others and to ourselves. This Mother’s Day, consider giving yourself the space to write, and to witness the life you’ve lived so far. It’s a time to reflect on what you’ve inherited, what you want to carry forward, and what you’re ready to release. Whether or not you choose to share what you write, the act of writing can be grounding, healing, and profoundly life-affirming.
Here are three of the more than twenty prompts you'll find in the How to Write Your Heart Will® guide:
- How would you describe yourself to a future family member (birth or chosen family), who will not meet you in person?
- What are some of the best choices you’ve made in your life and why?
- Name the people in your life without whom you would be a different and less authentic you. What was their gift?
Whether you are a mother, missing a mother, longing to be one, or simply reflecting on your place as a nurturer or one who has been nurtured in the great unfolding of life, this is your chance to pause and say: This is who I am. This is what I’ve lived. This is what I hope you’ll remember.
💜 Download the free How to Write Your Heart Will® guide to get started.
💜 Or join me as I get you started in Writing Your Heart Will® as a Manifesto for Living: a Willow Workshop® happening virtually on May 14th, 2025 at 4:30 PM Pacific Time
Find out what time it is in your time zone.
Because writing your Heart Will® isn’t just about what you’ll leave behind. It’s about how you choose to live—starting now.
