Alar Karis: A mother is the center of a safe world
A mother is the center of a safe world. We all need a mother and the security she provides, both in Estonia and elsewhere, said President Alar Karis in his Mother's Day address.
Dear current and future mothers, kind grandmothers and brave great grandmothers. Every person hopes for happiness. Perhaps the greatest happiness is to be born into this world. Equally great is the good fortune of becoming a parent. For a mother and father to have a child together. It has been said that the meaning of life is to carry life forward.
But the harsh rule of life is that every time you win something, you lose something. Remember how a baby begins to walk? They stop, hold the edge of the table and ... look questioningly at their mother with their big, slightly frightened eyes. Then they turn their head and take the very first step of their life. They lose their mother's sure grasp, but gain the world.
Next is kindergarten and then school. They enter first grade with excitement, primary school also begins at a fast pace, but with some anxiety, and later on... let's say in thoughtful silence, some days with indifference or reluctance.
There are days when a child is very angry. Nothing is right, you don't recognize your child. But these are also days of growth.
Everything goes by fast. In retrospect, it's like a flash of light. The child grows and grows up to be a better person to his mother and father.
A mother is the center of a safe world. I can't imagine how broken the world is for children who have lost their mother, their family, their home. We all need a mother and the security she provides, in Estonia and elsewhere.
A week ago, my family's mother, Sirje, opened a new family home with Olena Zelenska in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Built by Estonian architects and builders, the home will house a family of nine. At the outbreak of the full-scale invasion, they were forced to leave their home in Sumy Oblast, then spent three months in Kohtla-Järve in Estonia before returning to Ukraine, where they had to look for a new home because of the bombing. This house isn't just about walls and a roof over their heads – it's a way of giving them hope for happiness. Without hope, there is nothing.
When a tiny person is born into the world, they grab their mother's finger and hold it tightly in their little palm. That finger will be there in the child's head even when they are not so little anymore.
I wish that you will have someone's hand to hold and that someone will also hold yours. I wish you a happy Mother's Day!
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