Photo by Kathy Morris.This one's for my mom.
Almost everything I know, and everything I like about myself was given to me by my mom. She's the most resourceful woman I've ever known. She taught me the promise in a seed, and the beauty in the everyday. I share with her an urge to celebrate the small things: a dragonfly's wing, the flash of an oriole, a row of dewy seedlings. When my parents left New York City (and their careers) for a neglected upstate farmstead, it was my mom who kept us fed as my dad struggled to build his business. She became a disciple of lentils, a stockmaker, a grower of long rows of peas and potatoes. The best snapshots of my childhood are from her kitchen: me whirling around with a doily on my head as she simmered a soup pot, us decorating Halloween pumpkin cookies together, she and my grandfather taking shifts basting the Christmas turkey, me dramatically confessing my crush on Matthew Nichols as she patiently scrubbed the dishes, the holy ritual of two women working together in the kitchen, dicing mountains of vegetables for Thanksgiving stuffing.
She's an artist, a maker, a planner. She's the coolest Mom I know, and I'm awfully proud to be her daughter.
Happy Mother's Day.
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5 comments:
What a beautiful post! This is the first time in 4 years I'm actually home for mother's day and being around her always reminds me where I get so much of who I am.
Thanks for commenting! I'm hopeful that next year my mom and I will be spending mother's day together, too.
What wonderful words for you mother. I'm sure she is delighted by them.
What a beautiful mental picture you created. It transported me to a time of simplicity and true beauty. It sounds like the ideal childhood for growing into a true person. :)
Aw, thanks guys! My childhood wasn't always roses, (whose is?) but mom sure made the thorns easier to bear.
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