Remembering Mom -
I just realized that Mom's Day is nearly here. Memories come flooding into my mind...
...down in the basement of the old house, breaking up furniture to burn in the furnace so we could be warm again...at 5 years old I thought breaking up chairs and throwing them into the flames was uproariously funny...much later I realized what desperate times those were for my mother.
She was a single mom, doing whatever she had to do to raise 3 young boys to have a life better than hers. I was the oldest at 5, no clue to the challenges she was dealing with on a daily basis.
She was a hero. Heroine if you are a feminist. Tough, determined, gutsy...with a wry sense of humor. Whatever it took to take care of her sons, she did it.
For years...and years...
Life got easier for Mom later on. She married a good man, finally, and he helped raise us. She got the nice house she wanted, but she never was fully able to accept that she deserved good things. Her own childhood haunted her all her days.
Looking back, I wish now I had been able to be more understanding and loving to her in her last years. Her toughness also made her stubborn and she and I butted heads on more than one occasion. But I always knew she loved me in a special way, the way a mother loves her first born.
I owe my life to my Mom. My strengths I got from her. Curiousity, sense of adventure, love of people, all qualities I got from my Mom.
She was my hero.
What did your Mom give you?
If you are so blessed, please make sure you thank her in ways she can appreciate this Mother's Day.
Choose Love...and Leap...
Yours to count on,
Stephen Miller
ShareMyHeart.com
write me at stephen@sharemyheart.com
