Happy Mothers' Day 2011

My mom seeing me off to DC!

 Yesterday was Mothers' Day. Being nearly 3,000 miles from home now, I felt the need to do something besides a simple phone call to my mother. We'd done a combined celebration of Mothers' Day and my going-away party as a family the week before, but I knew there had to be something more I could do.

I'm so lucky to have an inspiration like my Paw-paw in my life.  She's been through so much and just keeps on adapting and thriving.

Enter the Jubilee Project. I've been a huge fan of this YouTube channel/group for about a year now (check out their video "Love Language" it's amazing). The concept that these three guys have put together is to film videos to raise money for charity. They find a charity that's in need, create a video related to the topic and post it while appealing to their fans to sponsor the video with a penny per view for that month (sponsors can always put a cap on how much they're able to donate). Then people can support by simply viewing and sharing the video as many times as they can, being touched by the subject matter and raising awareness as well.

In any case, the Jubilee Project created this Mothers' Day video for the month of May and I decided it would be a fitting tribute to my mother, grandmothers and all the other women in my life past, present and future to become a sponsor of the video. Here it is:



http://youtu.be/3D6s36W1Ngk?hd=1

For more information about the Jubilee Project check out:
http://www.youtube.com/​jubileeproject
http://www.jubileeproject.org
http://www.facebook.com/​jubileeproject
http://www.twitter.com/​jubileeproject

Of course I couldn't help but be inspired by this video to create an addendum to it of my own. So amidst the streets of DC I filmed my own thoughts on a world without mothers and why I love the mothers in my life, edited it and emailed it to my mom and Paw-paw (grandma), all on my iPhone (gotta love technology sometimes). That video will remain private for just them, but I encourage all of you to do something similar for the women in your lives if you feel inspired to do so.

Although my Ngin-ngin may not be with us physically anymore, I know she's always with me making sure we've all eaten and playing card games with her grandchildren for which only she knows the rules.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mothers' Day and got to spend it with the ones you loved, either physically or via technology (yay Google video chat). I know that this sun always shines brighter with the comfort of his mother's love and support.

P.S. Here's another touching Mothers' Day video, a music video this time from Seattle artist GOWE (Gifted on West East). His debut performance of this song was at Kollaboration Seattle last year and apparently it had plenty of people in the audience tearing up. An emotional true story:



http://youtu.be/fXcblBDTAoQ?hd=1