*an old snapshot of my very own mother…check out those shoes*grin*
Sometimes this day feels a bit unreal for me. I have been a mother for almost eight years, but it still seems so new. I wonder if motherhood will ever get that broken-in, well-worn feeling or if I will always feel a little out of my element. There always seems to be something new to learn, something more to see.
My little ones are continually surprising me with their sharp observations and innocent questions. Somehow, amazingly, they think I have all the answers. I wish I did, but some of my very own kindergarten-mind queries are still floating around in my head after all these years, no closer to being answered than when I asked them. When I became a mother those unanswered questions settled down a bit with the understanding that comes of having them endlessly tossed back at me. I have become very okay with not having all the answers.
And, of course, I now understand my own mother’s wise, but sometimes vague solutions to my childhood problems. She wasn’t stupid, nor was she deliberately trying to be unclear as much as she had also begun to understand that she wasn’t put on this earth to be a walking encyclopedia. She was a guiding hand of reason and discipline as were both my grandmothers each in their own special way.
There were so many times I wanted specifics, but the only answer forthcoming was, “Someday you will understand.” Oh, how that rankled. But, oh how that was so true. Now I do understand. And notwithstanding the frustration I know my children feel when I repeat that little gem to them, I say it nonetheless because I want them to feel the satisfaction of growing older and coming into that wisdom that comes with time and experience and a strong walk with God.
Not all answers are out of our reach, I am glad to say. I do happen to know how to tie a shoe, how to solve a math problem, and why grass is green. I do know that red and blue make purple and how many players are on a volleyball team. I know how to find middle C on a piano and how to write a good ‘thank you’ note. All of these a credit to my own mother and hers before her.
Let’s walk forward as mothers with a lightheartedness borne of time and a sobriety borne of experience, that we may pass it forward to our little ones for their own time to come.
Love them, teach them, lead them. Never give up on them. Guide them in the way everlasting.
So, from me to you, I pray you are having an absolutely wonderful Mother’s Day.
