Mothers: life, love, learning
M, after all, is for mother.By all external measures, I have done a lot of things, traveled to a lot of places, and met with a lot of distinguished people in my life. But it just pales in comparison. The very most important thing I do or am is a mother to my two daughters. Even when they wake me up from my happy mother’s day sleeping-in-so-they- can-surprise- me- with-breakfast slumber by screaming up a lung because their older sister won’t give them a tortilla.
We all have a mother, some still with us, others not present in our lives for some reason. Whether present now in our lives or not, perhaps a moment of silence today to thank them for giving us life, or maybe a lanyard we made in camp for them. Or simply the tip of a hat this week to a mother who is having a tough time in the grocery store with her toddler. I carry little pages of stickers (that I buy by the bucket full at Staples) in my wallet for those moments, to distract toddlers from the Neet Hair Removal System they are screaming to own, to give to them, to silently say "I know" to the mothers who are desperately trying to hold it together for just one more aisle, just until they get to the Nighttime Nyquil section.
Mothering is a hard job sometimes.
But I love it. It feels like a walk off a pier, into the future.
37days Do it Now Challenge
March right on down to your local office supply store, buy some bulk packages of Curious George stickers, and stick five sheets of them in your wallet. The next time you’re in the Piggly Wiggly and a child hypothetically named Tess is screaming like she has been poked with a spear tipped in rat poison because her aging mother who just received her invitation from AARP won’t buy her a Pooh balloon that says "Hi Honey Bunny!," quietly offer her a page of stickers. The distraction will likely shock her into silence, the mother will drop to her knees in sheer thankfulness, offering you everything in her wallet, and you’ll have done A Good Thing. And if you could do that at the Westgate Earth Fare in Asheville every Thursday afternoon around 4pm, I’d be much obliged.