Pant hooting. Try it! Seriously. She’d say it’s okay.

You may not believe in evolution, and that is all right. How we humans came to be the way we are is far less important than how we should act now to get out of the mess we have made for ourselves.

If you really want something, and really work hard, and take advantage of opportunities, and never give up, you will find a way.

That I did not fail was due in part to patience….

—Jane Goodall

As I prepare suitcases and cooler and fill snack tins and pack supplies for a week even though we are only going overnight, I’m thinking about the writing and revising I won’t get done this weekend—and, truthfully, I’m a little relieved. Besides, it will be Mother’s Day and now that I am a mother I get it, I get it and am looking forward to a room service breakfast with husband and preschooler. This weekend we will visit the San Diego Wild Animal Park and ride a tram and my son will get a good look at the African animals he so admires—non-taxidermied animals, for a change—living dioramas. I will point out the wildebeasts and lions and expostulate on why antelope lounge rump to rump in circular formations, all the while utterly aware of the crowbar in the backpack by my side in case there’s an earthquake and chaos theory takes over and the animals escape and we must bash our way to safety because this is the extent to which I’ve evolved and I’m not proud of it, but I’m a mother and we carry many vital items in our purses and backpacks in addition to extra underwear for the entire family and sunblock. Because you just. Never. Know.

Happy Mother’s Day to the mamas. May your bellinis be strawberry and extra cold. May your pant hoots be joyful and inspired.