Happy Mother's Day

I have grown to value my mom more and more as I grow older. I suppose this is the case for many women my age. Several years ago we had some hard talks, her and I. Talks that really could have permanently damaged our relationship, but instead I believe made it stronger. My mom is an amazing woman. She was a single mom for a good part of my childhood and worked in a factory...at one point had a job where she wound wire around a spool for 8 hours a day, which made her finger tips raw. She did not use the welfare system because she always assumed that there must be someone else who needed it more that she did. To this day I have no idea how she supported herself and 2 kids on a minimum wage salary. Her mom, my maternal grandmother, lived in an orphanage from the time she was 9 years old. Her parents left her there to go find work during the depression and never came back. She was never adopted but aged out of the orphanage and started a new life for herself. I come from a long line of women who are tough as nails. Sometimes I fear that I have lost some of the grit passed down to me. I complain about working part time, I complain that our house is small, I complain that our printer is on the fritz. A function of living in this very sanitized suburb I suppose. But thinking about my mom this mother's day makes me want to renew my resolve to pass these qualities onto my daughters. Qualities like selflessness...working tirelessly for something because it's the most important thing in your life, integrity...doing what's right even when it hurts or makes you look like an idiot, humility...remembering that none of us really deserve or have "rights" to anything, simplicity...not insisting on the biggest and best of everything (even if you can afford it) and of course unconditional love...loving someone even when they are unlovable or give little in return. Admittedly this is quite a tall order and I can think of more failings than victories in each one of these areas. But in the midst of the daily grind, it helps to remember what it is we're fighting for.