Mother’s day is just around the corner, so, of course, this article has to be an Ode to My Mother! When I think of her, I can’t help but smile. Her quirky keeps me endlessly entertained. Here are a few things I really admire about her:
Her love of music
As a child, I was always watching her sing and sway. Occasionally, my dad would sneak up behind her, place his hands on her hip and sway with her. It was always a comical scene as she playfully swatted at him with the wooden spoon in her hand when his hands began to wander. Those are fond memories.
Her energy
I don’t know where it comes from?! She is like a 4 year old who just chased chocolate cake with a can of soda. She just goes and goes and goes. It can be exhausting, but mostly it is just fun. When she comes to my house, I have to prepare myself for it, because I know that she is going to make me work the entire time she is here. It doesn’t matter that it is my house. “Yes ma’am,” is all she needs to hear as she hands me my towels to put away.
I’m sure she sleeps, I just don’t know when. I laugh when I get texts at midnight from her. Maybe it’s paybacks for when I was younger and would call her at midnight on her birthday to be the first to wish her a happy birthday. Or maybe it’s paybacks for all of the times she had to come pick me up at midnight from somewhere I probably shouldn’t have been. Either way, those late night texts are warmly welcomed.
Her generosity
She is a giver of all things. Her time. Her money. Her food. Her space. Her experience. Her wisdom.
It was not uncommon for me to come home after school and find that we had a friend of one of my older siblings living with us. She took in anybody who needed a place to stay, and they were welcomed for as long as they needed to be there.
She would give (and probably has) the coat off of her back.
Her Love of Games
She loves to play games. She and her friends gather three (if not more) times a week to play games together. Man, she gets into it! She is competitive, and I can’t help but laugh at her excitement when she wins.
A couple of weeks ago I took her and my sister out to play pickleball for the first time. My mother has always been an active and highly athletic woman. Her competitive drive made her nervous about playing a game that she had never before played. I assured her she would be just fine, and, sure enough, twenty minutes into our game, I knew she had relaxed into her own as I watched her do a victory dance over a ball that burned my sister. Yep, my 68 year old mother did a victory dance. I love that! I love that at this point in her life, she still has a victory dance in her! Life is not slowing her down. She is determined to conquer, to make the most of it and to enjoy it.
And finally …
Her Happy Disposition
She is just happy, almost always. I don’t know if it is a choice she makes every day, or if it is simply her disposition, but I sure am grateful for it. Life has not always been easy for her. It hasn’t been the most rewarding or the most successful by traditional definitions, but she is happy. That’s one more thing she generously shares with the world around her, happiness. I am grateful for that example she sets for me – that I can be happy no matter my circumstances.
I will forever be grateful for the mother I have been blessed with!