About Mothers Who Know

I don't know about anyone else out there but often times in life my mother has made me laugh. Sometimes she seems so quirky and I wonder why she does the things she does. She saves everything! She is very good at documenting the lives of her family by keeping everything important on her computer. One of her greatest requests about dying is that when she does we have to go through EVERYTHING on her computer before we do anything with it. She has genealogy, photos, documents and far more than I know saved in it. Let me be clear in case anything I have written came out wrong. My mom isn't weird or anything, I just don't always understand why she does some of the things she does. The problem is mine!

Well she sent me a note on facebook this evening letting me know she sent a surprise to my email. I checked my email and what do I find? MY BLOGS!!! I'm not so sure all of them are there but the most important ones are there. She has been saving them for a long time, she said, and how grateful I am for that.

Not only do I feel gratitude, but a bit of shame for all those times I tease her for those little "quirks" that I just don't understand. I understand a little better now. Where I have failed because of laziness and lack of forward thinking and even wisdom she has made up for in her wisdom and thoughtfulness and experience.

Is that not the true essence of a mother? Some one who is a blessing to her children by fixing their mistakes when appropriate yet standing back to let them figure it out for themselves when fixing their mistakes might hinder growth. My mother's priority when raising her children was to raise children who were independent and to teach us how to make decisions and I personally feel like she's accomplished that. But I'm grateful that wanting independent children wasn't the same thing as not wanting to be involved, and I'm grateful that she chooses to be who she is despite my teasing and lack of understanding.

I'm so grateful to have these records of my life back. I'm grateful to and for my mom and all she does for my family. My heart has been healed tonight by the love of my mother. Talk about a Happy Thanksgiving!