I'm one of those mothers who love Mother's Day. I can't wait for the homemade gifts, the breakfast in bed drenched in syrup and sticky kisses, and it is always the day I plant my garden with my family.

But a few years ago, Mother's Day became so much more than those wonderful sticky kisses,   it became a day that I stand in solidarity with mothers around the world to demand a safe, bountiful and meaningful  life for all the world''s children.

I stand side by side with Julia Ward Howe, one of our most courageous founding mothers who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic and also penned the very first Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870. She called on women to "arise," and wrote, "as men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel." She goes on to say, "Let them meet first as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace…"  

Wow. That's where Mother's Day originated, in the courageous arms of the mothers and grandmothers of the Civil War. It wasn't Hallmark after all.

This was written at a time when our country was still healing from the ravages of war, partisanship and economic strife. Women during this period had no political voice or rights, and it was 50 years before women got the right to vote. She was truly a mother to be proud of, courageous, just and committed to a peaceful and prosperous world for all women and their children.

I often wonder if I would have had the courage to stand up in the face of such adversity. I see pictures of suffragettes in their white ankle length dresses, placards in hand, marching in the streets of cities all across America. They faced threats and ridicule, contempt and injustices, and yet they did not stop until the vote for women was won. These are our role models, our Founding Mothers, – their selflessness and bravery, their commitment to the common good seemed to know no bounds. 

It is now our time to find our own courage and carry forward the vision of Julia Ward Howe. The mother's of the world are hurting, – they are losing their lives needlessly in childbirth, they are losing their children to diseases we have long since forgotten about like measles and pneumonia and they are systematically denied the right to vote, to own property  and to be seen as equals in their societies. And yet study after study tells us that these very same women and girls hold the key to many of the issues plaguing the world today.

The mother's of the world need our voices. 

So as I am enveloped by the sweetness of Mother's Day I will allow myself to be pampered and cared for. But, I will also raise my voice to bring dignity to all mothers and remember the original intent of this auspicious day, when mothers were called to greatness by the Mother of Mother's Day.

Stacy Carkonen is the National Field Director for Global Action for Children, a Washington, DC based advocacy organization mobilizing the political will to ensure all mothers and children have everything they need to thrive. She lives and works in the shadow of Mt. Rainier in Sumner, Washington with her husband, two children and a small herd of hamsters.

For more information about how you can add your voice to the growing list of mothers and others committed to creating a more peaceful, hopeful and prosperous world contact Global Action for Children – scarkonen@globalactionforchildren.org

Mother's Day Proclamation- 1870

Arise then … women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.