Mother's Day

That's my mom circa 1967. She was one of eight children, four boys and four girls. Based on stories my grandmother tells, she was sassy growing up. My grandmother once grabbed the closest item (a plunger) to whoop her for whining about her clothes as a teenager.

I often wonder what my mom envisioned her future to be like at the age of 17. Did she always know she would devote her life to being a mother? Did she have entirely different plans, but then met my dad and everything changed? She met my dad in high school, by the way. He drove a souped up Nova and was a wee bit rowdy. She had my sister when she was 19 and myself at 23. We became her future.

My mother is the perfect amount of sweet and salty. Growing up, she was never afraid to be silly with us. She would burst into dance in the grocery store if she saw the moment fit. She is emotionally driven. I think I inherited that from her. She is as motherly as a mother comes, with a nurturing spirit like no other. I also owe my creativity to her. She would never admit it, but she's incredibly good at making. Making anything. She can whip up something out of nothing and make it look effortless. Having her as a mother growing up was the greatest advantage in life a person could have.

She deserves to be celebrated not just as a mother, but as a person. 

Life is a collection of experiences. Days and years begin to fall on top of one another like the patches of a quilt. The patches eventually assemble to form something like life and by journey's end we find ourselves wrapped in the warmest blanket just as the sun is setting. Some pieces of our mother's quilts are passed down to ours, because that's what mothers do. They place their very heart into their children. I carry pieces of my mother and grandmothers and them theirs. 

Mother's Day is special. Violet came earthside on Mother's Day, so good luck to everyone trying to top that gift. I've never worked so hard in my life, but I would do it ten times over for her.

Today is Violet's birthday, so I have a been a mother for a year. It has been a year of learning, a year of adjusting, the fastest year of my life. I have a feeling they're not going to slow down any time soon. Motherhood has given my life new meaning and Violet has redefined life and love itself.
 
No matter how you slice it, being a parent is hard. It's because being a parent brings growth to our being. And growth is often painful, or at least uncomfortable. It's a path that dishes out lots of bumps, but betters us as a person because of them. Their personalities seem almost hand-picked to iron out the wrinkles in ourselves.