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Sunday Snippet: The Ode to Mom Edition
It’s Mother’s Day–a day that always gives me a lump in my throat as I remember my mom. Not this year, but about every seven years, Mom’s birthday (May 13) lands on Mother’s Day, which makes the day even more bittersweet with memories of her reading aloud to us on camping trips and her humor and intelligence and sense of fun. It also reminds me of the numerous times she and I crossed swords because we were both so set in our thinking–I hope I’ve outgrown that. I’m so grateful for the ten days I got to spend with her in CA six months before she died. Those days, over 37…
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Sunday Snippet: The Wildflowers and Memories Edition
Neighbor and pal Mary and I have been walking in between raindrops this week, admiring all the spring flowers in folks yards and the magnolia trees and other flowering trees that are blooming. Some wildflowers are showing up in yards as well because we live in a neighborhood with lots of huge old trees. Wildflowers like delicate spring beauties, violets, and the little white blooms that look like stars. They’re so beautiful and they reminded me of when PJ and Kate and I used to go out into the woods behind our church when we were kids and hunt for wild flowers. The woods there was gorgeous and full of…
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Sunday Snippet: The It’s a Mom Thing Edition
This Thanksgiving weekend, when we were all together as family, I realized something significant. It wasn’t startling, but I saw it in all the parents/grandparents who sat around my sister’s huge, but cozy table. It’s this. We never ever stop being parents—once you have a child, you’re signed up for life and beyond. We moms suffer just as much when our child struggles at age 45 as we did when they fell and broke their arm at age 5. I once heard that a mother is only as happy as their unhappiest child. I don’t know if that’s true or not because I only have one, but I do know…
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Sunday Snippet: The Mom Edition
It’s Mother’s Day and although I sometimes have trouble with whole concept, which I once was convinced came about because a greeting card company needed sales. Turns out my cynicism button had been pushed because that’s not how it came about at all. A woman named Anna Jarvis spearheaded the celebration of Mother’s Day because she wanted to honor her mother who’d passed three years earlier. She ushered in the first Mother’s Day with a church celebration in West Virginia. And on May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson designated the second Sunday in May as national Mother’s Day and asked Americans to give a public thank you to all their…