All these 35 years, my mother has been my rock. 

She has put a roof over my head, put food in my belly and bailed me out when I have gotten in trouble. 

It has felt like she made me the priority of her life all these years, and this sacrifice is something I could never repay.

This, my most important relationship, has taught me some valuable truths. 

From my perspective, I have started to bloom into a functioning and valuable adult, but it’s taken all this time. 

That’s how I learned that truly meaningful things (relationships in particular) can take time, even a lifetime. 

By discovering God, I have realised that people crave constancy – we need it to trust and feel safe.

A mother’s love is also one of those precious few constants in life. 

Constancy is the framework in which our hearts can heal, and it can take time.

What, then, does it mean to provide constancy as a man? 

I believe that, in order to be a source of constancy, a man must base his life on the bedrock of unchanging principles.

For me, this means faith in a higher power.

Only then, once he feels safe himself, can he provide safety for his family.

But, as I have learned from my mother, sometimes it takes a lifetime of constancy for a heart to bloom.