I remember doing some of the same things she did too. Like try her Mother’s glasses on and I’d nearly be drunk from the blur! Then sit and listen as she gave me her own advice (many times listening to my Grandmother too). And now the years have flown and we have grown with children of our own. Little grandchildren run about us now. The glasses do fit our sight better, for as the old saying goes “Mother is always right”. It is just kind of sad that it took us so very long to understand all of it, so we could have let her know our total love and appreciation of her. (Nothing is worth severing a Mother/child relationship)
....
A New View....
.. ..
Tucked neatly inside my mother’s old jewelry box are the glasses she....
wore many years before her death. When I was younger I used to try on....
those glasses, wishing to wear them but quickly laying them aside,....
escaping that cloudy, blurry world they created. It was quite a....
wonder to me how she saw so clearly through those lenses, how she....
reached for them each morning when she awoke before going to the....
kitchen to make the morning coffee. Mother’s view certainly was....
different back then, and as I sat across from her those many mornings,....
sharing that aromatic beverage, she expressed her thoughts in ways....
that caused me to chuckle inside, believing that she was so “behind....
the times,” yet daring not to disagree with her, realizing that if I....
did an all-out argument would surely ensue. And so, I politely....
listened, vowing never to embrace her ideology, clinging instead to....
those younger generational viewpoints of the 1960s. And then, I would....
slide into those brightly colored bell-bottomed slacks, toss my long....
hair over my shoulder and give her a quick kiss on the cheek before....
leaving the house.....
.. ..
I was enjoying my freedom, driving that little Corvair down the long....
country road toward town, leaving the country and its values far....
behind, entering a world where I could do things my way, the modern....
way. College had opened wide those doors of freedom, allowing me to....
learn and experience life in a way that would have caused Mother to....
sit with me a little longer at the kitchen table, extolling those....
virtues passed on by her mother, attempting to extend that influence....
to her daughter.....
.. ..
Marriage, work and family had its way of restricting much of that....
freedom many of us felt in the 1960s. It was not long before it was I....
who was making that morning coffee, doing the laundry and shuffling....
the kids off to school. And, not surprisingly, it was I who was....
seated across the table from those young people, watching them fidget....
a bit in their chairs before going off into their own, new world of....
ideas.....
.. ..
Likewise, it should not have come as a surprise to me this morning....
when I opened that old jewelry box and once again placed those old....
glasses over my eyes that something had changed. Suddenly I was....
seeing more clearly through those old lenses, and as I sat there in....
wonderment, looking around at my world some forty years later, I....
realized that I had become my mother. I had ever so gradually....
returned to the ways she had taught me, those ideas that once caused....
me to chuckle, the ones that seemed so distant, were now so very close....
to my heart.....
.. ..
Nancy Farley....
May 1, 2010....
....
.. .. ....
.. ..
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails...."1 Corinthians 13:4-8....
.. ..
The biggest witness we can be to another is when they "see our LIFE". ....
People will “READ US before they ever READ the BIBLE”! ....
"The LIFE of YOU will be the DEATH of ME; so I must DIE, that YOU might LIVE."....
.. ..
2 Chronicles: 7:14 “.....if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land”...
"The only people who are truly free are the ones who walk in a continual spirit of forgiveness."
