WWMS?

Sometimes, when I am feeling somewhat less than confident (so pretty often actually), and I don’t know what to do, I ask myself, “What would Mom say?”

Almost every day I think of something I wish I could pick up the phone and ask Mom or tell Mom about. I want to be able to include my mother in my life, even after all these years. Still having a mother figure in my mother-in-law was some consolation. She was always willing to let me talk through anything on my mind, but it wasn’t quite the same.

This year is the first time that neither Hubby nor I have a mother alive to celebrate Mother’s Day with. We are both orphans now, as we say. We console ourselves with the thought that it happens to most people at some point in their lives and we had our parents to enjoy much longer than some. We look back on those precious days, not as the perfect times we should all aspire to, but the life we had and didn’t know enough to appreciate at the time.

If you are lucky enough to have your parents with you, then take this time to appreciate the ways they made your life so much better and forgive them any times they may have been less than perfect as parents. We are all human, after all, we make mistakes.

Newborn babies don’t come with instructions when you bring them home from the hospital and I still remember the sense of wonder when they let me just leave the hospital with my firstborn. You mean they are just letting us take this tiny human home with us? I didn’t worry too much though, because I knew I could call my mom or mother-in-law and ask them any questions that came up.

Thanks to both our mothers for being there when we needed you. Mom, thanks especially for being that voice in my head telling me I can do anything and be anything I set my mind to if I try hard enough. I’m so glad you always had such high expectations for us, it gave us something to live up to, and there was always room for improvement.

This story was what came out after reading Ann Kroeker’s tribute to her mother. Thanks for inspiring me, Ann!

Happy Mother’s Day!

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Include
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.