A Little Friday Gratitude – Mother | From Single To Married

A Little Friday Gratitude – Mother

Fri, Oct 10, 2008

A Little Friday Gratitude, All Posts, Everyday Life

It’s Friday again. The end of another week and time for the weekend. In getting ready for this weekend, I want to try something a little different. Call it enlightenment, call it sentimentality, call it what you will, but I think that Friday is a good time to look back on the week and evaluate the things in your life. There are so many worries and concerns that plague us during the work week – this week my worries included little things like the state of the nation, the upcoming presidential election, the possibility of losing a job, you know, little things like that.

But the week is done and I want to put those things behind me. So instead, I’m going to concentrate on the things that I have and that I am grateful for. And right there at the top of the list is my mother.

I’ve been thinking about her today for a couple of reasons. First, it was exactly 37 years ago (tomorrow) that she was in labor with me.

And let me tell you, from what I was reading this morning, labor is no small thing. And that’s the second reason I was thinking of her – this morning I was reading a book about the amazing process that the body goes through while a child is developing. The baby starts as a few tiny little cells and as it’s nourished by its mother, it grows until it has a beating heart and limbs and the next thing you know it looks like a miniature person.

The process for the mother, from what I read, didn’t sound quite as glorious. It often includes heartburn, indigestion, and backaches, not to mention the fact that the poor woman can’t see her feet for several months. Let’s just say that reading about the whole child-bearing process (I haven’t even gotten to the actual labor part yet) gave me a new appreciation for what my mother must have gone through.

And what she continued to go through after I was born – sleepless nights, crying fits (me, not her), loss of freedom, all the things that go along with being a new mother. I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy.

So I’m grateful for my mother. I’m grateful for the time she spent teaching me to sew (not that I do it anymore unfortunately) and how she passed along her love of reading. I’m thankful for the years that she put up with my insolent behavior as I was trying to figure out who I was. And for the way that she calls me on a regular basis, even though I don’t always call her back.

I’m also grateful that she taught me to have faith and then showed me through her example how to live a good life. And I’m grateful for the support she always gives even when I don’t do what she taught me and how when I make mistakes, she stands with open arms to forgive me.

I’m especially grateful for the kindness that she gives to my husband, who is only a few years younger than she is, but whom she has always treated like a beloved son-in-law.

But most of all, I’m grateful to know that when it is my turn to be the one with backaches and heartburn and indigestion, that she will be beside me every step of the way. That she will help me walk when I can’t see my feet, that she will give me words of advice when I ask for help, and that she will hold my hand when I’m scared. Because that is what mothers do, and for that I am eternally grateful.