10.5.20

Mother's Day

On this day 20 years ago, I graduated from college.  (For the sake of full disclosure, I remember that only because my bestie reminded me earlier today).

Just over two months later, I would get married and move 500 miles away.  That was also the last year I would spend Mother's Day with my Mama.  When I was thinking about that earlier today, I wondered what my Mama was thinking that day.  In just three years, my firstborn will graduate high school around this same time.  I've spent the last couple of years of motherhood preparing, in a sense, for my children to leave the safe shelter of our home and embark on the next chapter of their lives.  Everyday is one step closer to letting go.  Or perhaps there's a bit of letting go in everyday.

When I think about tomorrow . . . schooling, a biology presentation that needs to be finished, laundry that I'm already a day behind on, three more meals to set on the table and then all the thousands of things in between, well, I'm just tired.  And then I think about my Mama.  What would she do?  She would get up, and she would do it.  And she would do it full of love and grace and patience.  I remember a ton of things my Mama did . . . taking me to piano lessons, cooking supper every night when she got home from work, making my favorite pasta for lunch on Saturdays, ironing our clothes so they were ready for church on Sundays and doing it over and over and over again plus all the million other little things.  But you know what she never did?  Complain.  She served us day in and day out.  She didn't do it expecting anything in return.  She didn't do it for the recognition or accolades.  She did it because she loved us.  And because she wanted to.

So, tomorrow, and everyday after that, I'll think of her just like I've done everyday before.      She modeled for me the kind of motherhood that God calls us to.  I never had to look outside the walls of our home for a hero.  Because I had her!