Do Life Right

In no particular order:

1. My earliest memory is of my mother rocking me in a rocking chair. I was calm and content. I didn’t need to be rocked, yet she rocked me anyway because she wanted to. In my memory, the experience lasted a long time. How sweet is that?
2. My mother has always believed I could do or be anything I wanted. While she hasn’t always believed that for herself, she’s always believed it of her children. While she has encouraged me to follow certain paths, they were always originally my path ideas. She’s there for support along the way.
3. My mother has never considered herself infallible. I never realized just how important this trait was until I was a parent myself and witnessed other parents around me who did not have this trait. The ability to say, “I messed up, I’m sorry, and I’ll do my best to not do it again,” is extremely important as a parent. Without this ability, kids will never completely trust you (especially when you never admit to being wrong). How could they?
4. My mom thinks I’m beautiful. This one might seem silly, but it’s not. I’ve grown from an infant to a woman, through fat times, thin times, sick times, and healthy times. Even acne times and perm times. Yet, my mother has always looked at me and thought I was beautiful, no matter how bad I might have looked to the rest of the world or myself.
5. My mother grew up in a generation and environment that didn’t value the intelligence or worthiness of females. While she is extremely smart, she wasn’t made to feel that way as a child. Even so, she never let anyone treat me that way - ever. She’s always stood up for my right to learn whatever I wanted, even when it went against her family. This was an amazing gift.
6. Whenever I’ve dabbled in a new way of doing something (such as veganism, Unschooling, or any other of a thousand different things I’ve tried), my mom has always encouraged me. She’s never put me down for wondering about alternatives and she’s always emphasized the importance of continuing to learn more about everything.
7. My mom is fanciful in all the right ways. While a careful and cautious person, she’s never afraid to take risks and go on adventures. Whether it be a new restaurant, an early morning (or late night) outing, or visiting a place she’s never been, she’s always ready for fun. She also has the uncanny ability to turn what most people would consider a bad situation into a memory that makes you smile. Some of our “worst” experiences have become laughable moments we share together and enjoy thinking and talking about due to my mom’s positive outlook and attitude.
8. Art and beautiful surroundings are important to my mom, yet she is the least pretentious person I’ve ever met. My mother has never been afraid to pick up a new artistic skill whether it be painting, room arranging, t-shirt decorating, candy making, pin-striping on motorcycles, or any of a hundred different things I’ve seen her enjoy. She enjoys surrounding herself with living art - things created by herself and the people who she loves. Her tastes are eclectic, yet her style goes together perfectly. This makes her “not set in her ways.”
9. Whenever I’ve been somewhere with my mom (my whole life), I’ve always had someone tell me how pretty my mom is. Sounds like a silly thing to be happy about, but really, if she’s remained beautiful as she ages, won’t I? It’s fun to have a beautiful mother.
10. My mom has become an amazing grandmother to my daughters. Even from a distance, she’s gotten to know my children and who they really are. She’s never assumed she knows what they like or don’t like and she’s never offended when they tell her, “Grandma, I don’t like this gift you gave me.” She just takes those moments to learn more about who they are. Knowing them personally is important to her, even when it’s required skills she never thought she’d want to have or need to know.
11. BONUS since my Mom really is that great: Whenever I’ve wanted/needed a particular thing (for school when I was a kid, for a gift, for personal use then or now, for my kids, for any reason at any time in my life), she finds it. [She’s one to have gotten me an original Cabbage Patch Kid back when they were extremely difficult to find.] I’ve mentioned this quality to a few of my friends on occasion and they’d never heard of a mother that was so understanding about this sort of thing, let alone a mom that went out of her way to help get the desired items for her loved ones. My mom has a knack at really comprehending these, so much so that she frequently has already purchased these sorts of things before we ask for them! She just senses our wants and needs and accommodates to an amazing degree. It’s caused me to really think about what I truly want vs. what I just flippantly desire. I don’t want to overload my mom.

Enjoy your own Mom today and every day! Happy Mother’s Day!