The First Lesson

 

For nearly 70 years, I never heard her say, "You darn well BETTER love me! 

All I do for you? You BETTER!"

We're in a world that lacks what we all want. We want to be loved. Well, that's just my opinion. Nevertheless, I'm convinced that we're dismissing real connections in favor of 'likes'. 

Perhaps there is only one place to find unconditional love. We go to our mothers. 

It is no wonder this is true for most of us. A mother loves first, gives second, and never asks for anything in return. In a way, this is the first thing that a mother teaches. They devote themselves to giving whatever we need as children. And, interestingly enough, that does not stop when we become adults. It's called self-sacrificial love. 

What we do with this lesson is up to us. We already know that we can't demand that someone loves us. But we also know that if we treat another person well, there's a good chance that we can become friends. And when that happens, love grows. 

Whatever prevents us from practicing this first lesson in our daily lives is a mystery to me. We build a lot of walls for a lot of reasons, good and bad. But we have a choice. We can start to reach out - whenever we want to. It's really up to each of us. 

Just thinking out loud here, but I believe we can best honor mothers everywhere if we'd just learn and live out this very first lesson.

Happy Mother's Day to men and women everywhere who in some form or another, 

qualify for this extraordinary title. 

First posted May 12, 2019. I didn't know then that 
I had only one more year with her. 
Thank you for your love, Mom. Happy Mother's Day

Writing. Past, Present, and Future

I remember the impatient anticipation as we approached high school's end of year. 

I remember group study and late nights before finals because, speaking honestly, I spent a lot of time with procrastinators of the first degree. 

I remember a take-home physics test. Six of us were in the basement exploring the hours of darkness working on pieces of this final exam. I remember the scratching of pencil on paper until someone shouted, “I’ve got one!”. We’d all stop what we were working on and wait for the instructions. “Problem 15-B. This is the answer.” Diligently, we’d add the given answer to our test page. 

I still wonder if that was cheating. But it was a take-home test for kids in high school. I can’t imagine that group efforts were unexpected.