May: The Month of Memorial Day, Motherhood and Merriment
According to the western or Gregorian calendar, the month of May is named after Maia, the ancient Greek and Roman goddess of youth, life, growth, rebirth, love, and nursing mothers. She was also considered the goddess of plants and the spring season. In earlier times, when the gentle warmth of May caused flowers to bloom and crops to sprout, people danced, children made garlands of greenery, and joyful celebrations were held on May Day, the first day of the month.
The spirit of May-time merrymaking continues to this day, as May Day is still an established spring holiday in many European countries. In May, people in the US also remember the country’s wartime heroes on Memorial Day, the 30th of the month, when the country celebrates the freedom that their sacrifices made possible. Another major holiday is Mother’s Day, celebrated in the US on the second Sunday of May. It’s appropriate that May was chosen as the month to honor mothers, because as mentioned, Maia, for whom the month was named, was the ancient goddess of nursing mothers.
One way to get into the spirit of May is to post uplifting quotes on your whiteboard wall that highlight the joy of this merry month. In doing so, you’ll provide positive reinforcement for yourself while working remotely or homeschooling your children, and also create material for homeschool English, history, and social studies lessons. The following is a selection of quotes with themes about May and mothers that you can use for this purpose, and so help to inspire yourself in the work-from-home office, or encourage your children in their homeschool studies.
According to psychologist and motivation expert Dr. Jonathan Fader, reading such quotes can uplift people who are open to positive, coherent messages that use powerful images and appeal to their hopeful natures. So, to help maintain an upbeat tone and think about aspects of yourself that you might want to improve, use your whiteboard wall as a posting area. Regularly write down three to seven of these quotes that best resonate with your current work-from-home or homeschool activities. With any luck, you’ll find food for thought, as well as a bit of humor and personal inspiration to help you face daily challenges and enhance your life.
Dry-erase Wall Reflections on May
“The month of May is the pleasant time; its face is
beautiful; the blackbird sings his full song, the living wood is his
holding, the cuckoos are ever singing; there is a welcome before the
brightness of the summer.”
― Augusta, Lady Gregory (Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager)
“When April steps aside for May, like diamonds all the rain-drops
glisten; fresh violets open every day; to some new bird each hour we
listen.”
― Lucy Larcom (US teacher, poet, and author)
“When purple finches sing and soar . . .
With vernal gladness running o’er—
When joys like these salute the sense . . .
Then waiting long hath recompense,
And all the world is glad with May.”
― John Burroughs (US naturalist, nature essayist and conservationist)
“May: the lilacs are in bloom. Forget yourself.”
― Marty Rubin (US author)
“The golden month of the wild folk — honey-sweet May, when
the birds come back, and the flowers come out, and the air is full of
the sunrise scents and songs of the dawning year.”
― Samuel Scoville Jr. (US attorney, ornithologist, and author of children’s books)
“Queer things happen in the garden in May. Little faces
forgotten appear, and plants thought to be dead suddenly wave a green
hand to confound you.”
— W. E. Johns (WW I pilot and writer of adventure stories)
“Horticulturally, the month of May is opening night, homecoming, and graduation day all rolled into one.” — Tam Mossman (US author)
“It is now May . . . It is the month wherein Nature hath
her fill of mirth, and the senses are filled with delights. It is from
the Heavens a grace, and to Earth a gladness.”
— Nicholas Breton (English poet and novelist)
“May, more than any other month of the year, wants us to feel most alive.” ―Fennel Hudson (US rural lifestyle and countryside author)
“Make hay in May for you never know what June is coming with and what July will present!”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah (Ghanaian writer and a teacher)
“As full of spirit as the month of May, and as gorgeous as the sun in Midsummer.”
— William Shakespeare (world-renowned English playwright and poet)
“Among the changing months, May stands confessed the sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed.”
—James Thomson (Scottish poet and playwright)
“The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.”
— Edwin Way Teale (US naturalist, photographer and writer)
“Let all thy joys be as the month of May,
And all thy days be as a marriage day.”
― Francis Quarles (17th century English poet)
“May . . . it’s full of all the things that make spring
and the brighter part of the year so special. Flowers bud, the sun
shines, and new seeds are sown into the fabric of our lives.”
―Jenna Danchuk (Canadian writer, researcher and editor)
“You have to remember to be thankful, but in May one
simply can’t help being thankful that one is alive, if for nothing else.
I feel exactly as Eve must have felt in the Garden of Eden.”
― L.M. Montgomery (Canadian author), Anne of Avonlea
“Along with the greening of May came the rain. Then the
clouds disappeared and a soft pale lightness fell over the city, as if
Kyoto had broken free of its tethers and lifted up toward the sun. And
everyone’s mood seemed buoyant, happy, and carefree.”
— Victoria Abbott Riccardi (US food, travel and health writer), Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto
“Mornings in May,
echoed with the call of cuckoos,
sunlight glowed through fresh green canopies of trees.”
― Meeta Ahluwalia (Indian author)
“Another May new buds and flowers shall bring: Ah! Why has happiness no second spring?”
— Charlotte Smith (English Romantic poet and novelist)
“As it fell upon a day / In the merry month of May, / Sitting in a pleasant shade / Which a grove of myrtles made.”
— Richard Barnfield (English poet)
“May is here! The air is fresh and sunny, and the miser-bees are busy hoarding golden honey.”
— Thomas Bailey (US historian and author)
“May, I thought that spring must last forevermore; for I was young and loved, and it was May.”
— Vera Brittain (English nurse, writer, feminist, socialist, and pacifist)
“Sweet April showers do spring May flowers.”
— Thomas Tusser (English poet and farmer)
“May hath come to love us, flowers, trees, their blossoms don; and through the blue heavens above us the very clouds move on.”
— Heinrich Heine (German poet, writer and literary critic)
“What potent blood hath modest May.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Who first beholds the light of day / In Spring’s sweet
flowery month of May / And wears an Emerald all her life, / Shall be a
loved and happy wife.”
— Anonymous
Dry-erase Wall Thoughts for Mother’s Day
“Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.”
— George Eliot (pen name of Mary Ann Evans, English novelist, poet, journalist and translator)
“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”
— Abraham Lincoln (16th President of the United States)
“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”
— William Makepeace Thackeray (English novelist, author and illustrator)
“When you look into your mother’s eyes, you know that is the purest love you can find on Earth.”
— Mitch Albom (US author, journalist, and musician)
“A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.”
— Gaspard Mermillod (Swiss cleric and writer)
“Mother’s love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved.”
— Erich Fromm (German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist and philosopher)
“The natural state of motherhood is unselfishness.”
— Jessica Lange (US actress)
“Mothers can forgive anything! Tell me all, and be sure
that I will never let you go, though the whole world should turn from
you.”
— Louisa May Alcott (US novelist, short story writer and poet)
“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I
am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral,
intellectual, and physical education I received from her.”
— George Washington (First President of the United States)
“Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.”
— Robert Browning (19th century English poet and dramatist)
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