With the passing of Mother’s Day, it is a good opportunity to reflect on motherhood, the importance of families and the qualities we praise in mothers.

We hope our readers had the opportunity to share their appreciation with all the mothers in their lives.

We also hope everyone can reflect on the kindness and compassion we have long associated with motherhood, and can share that kindness and compassion with family and friends who have lost their mothers, or did not have the blessing of strong relationships with their mothers.

For while we associate qualities like kindness, compassion, selflessness and patience with motherhood, they by no means are qualities that should be exclusive to mothers. Our communities would be better if women and men, whether they have children or not, aspired to be more kind, compassionate and patient. Our nation and world would be better places if we all recognized and accepted the times we need to put the needs of others ahead of our own self-interest.

While we certainly hope, for all those to whom it applies, that the day was an opportunity to celebrate the mothers in our lives, we also hope that we can all learn and strive to be better people, building better communities and a better world, after this Mother’s Day.