parents
The boundless love a parent has for their child is matched only by their capacity to embarrass them.
Autonomy is the Greatest Love of All
For most people, thinking about the influence your mother has had on you over the years would not be much of a challenge as I’m sure they would have a laundry list of great advisements their mothers have given them. Truthfully, I envied them. It’s not that my mother didn’t teach me anything, I just wish I had listened to her more. My mother has always been my rock, she was a pillar in my life and a true staple member of our family.
By Whitney Monyo5 years ago in Families
Keeping Mom's Memory
My mother was an artist. It was a talent she shared first with her nephews and nieces, and later with her children and grandchildren. If art was involved she had infinite patience. When I was eight, Mom and I cut hundreds of hearts from red and pink construction paper to glue on white streamers for a Valentine's Day party. She made every centrepiece for my bat mitzvah and later for my children’s. For my sweet sixteen, toga-themed, Mom recreated our home with floor seating, columns, and silhouettes of Roman soldiers and women to welcome guests. I remember her sketching, cutting, and colouring. But the best were her collages. There wasn’t a lot of money, but Mom filled cabinets art supplies of all kinds, most of it odds and ends from around the house. She created amazing art from the scraps she saved. And she saved everything. Egg cartons. Plastic containers. Keys. Ribbon and wrapping paper. Buttons. Tissue paper. Odds and ends and found objects, even dried flowers and pressed leaves from my father’s garden. And old books of all kinds: children’s books, primers, cookbooks, books in other languages, songbooks, magazines, even wallpaper sample books. Mom would pour over those books, cutting out shapes, old advertisements, letters, fantasy and fairytale characters, whatever struck her fancy. From these we would create collages of all kinds. Every one imbued with love. Sometimes they were simple pictures surrounded by tissue paper that would be gifted to friends and family, simply signed, “Rosalie.” Sometimes the collages were intricate, like the beautiful mirror with the decoupaged frame Mom made as a gift for my second-grade teacher. When I saw her years later, she told me she still had that mirror.
By Jennifer Gorman5 years ago in Families
My Mom
My mom is and was an extraordinary person and spirit. She influenced people from all over the world. My mom unexpectedly passed away this January but she taught me many lessons that have helped me through the grieving process and beyond. My mom is a mother of seven children and six of which she had through natural birth at home. And she loved us very much and decided to obtain her teaching certification and open a school with others like her to teach your children about the world and about Love. My mom's biggest lesson to me it's one of the Heart. She worked as a volunteer in a temple for over 40 years, never taking a salary and always committed to her work. She was an avid meditator and challenged herself with month-long fasts and intense periods of self-healing. She overcame many medical issues by correcting her nutrition and reinforcing her relationship to meditation, nature, and herself. She taught me that each one of us is a spark of divinity and we all have the capacity to Love. She passed unfortunately because of health conditions she kept secret from all of her loved ones. My mom taught me that real unconditional Love comes from service and unwavering compassion. She taught me that if you want to change the circumstances in your life that you must start with yourself and it must be with Love and for Love. I now have an extraordinary opportunity to train and practice as a trauma therapist, a career path I've been working towards for two decades. I have an opportunity to put my mom's lessons of Love into action with people suffering the most. I’ve included a letter I wrote shortly after my mom passed to an international group organized to study and practice meditation and concepts of Love. The instructors, Greg and Theresa, taught my mom and dad in the same classes I’m currently taking 30 years ago. My mom has made a lasting impact.
By Anura Mathis 5 years ago in Families
Oh MOMMA
Oh momma, It was you who taught me how to be so great, it was you that helped me fix all my mistakes.I watched you come home every night with sore feet and an aching back. I watched you wake up every morning And still have breakfast made On the table. When dad passed, You stepped in and you took his place. That’s why I celebrate you on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. There was a time when I got a little bit older and a little more growner and I wanted to date, when I experienced my first heartbreak; you let me cry on your shoulders. You told me “there will be a time when you get your heart broken, and it’s going to be OK!Because mama will always be here to wipe your tears away.” I prayed and prayed, harder and harder that you would never die on me. I need you around. I need you to be here when I have a child of my own, I need you to be here as my backbone. I want to witness the day I hear my daughter call you grandma. I want my daughter to experience the importance that you are in my life. The Beautiful songs you would sing to me, the way you would brush my hair until I fell asleep. You protected me, Even when I was wrong, then you would punish me as soon as we got home. (LOL) Not a day goes by that I don’t think about you. I reminisce on all my childhood memories, like that one time in elementary when the teacher said I was incompetent because I told her that her shoes were on the wrong feet, and I didn’t know what that meant at the time. But when I came home and told you what she said,You went out to the school and I watched you set her butt straight. Oh how I miss your crazy self.
By Dominique Gray5 years ago in Families
KeKeLoLo From The Block
“How you feeling lil girl?” My mother yelled across our complex parking lot from in front of her good girlfriend’s house a few yards away as I came walking by. I walked toward her to close the gap and express my very personal, honest opinion that required close attention. “I’m just disappointed in myself honestly like, I’ve…” mid statement she goes “Girl you gotta let that shit GO!” Subtlety hasn’t ever been one of my mother’s strong suits, laughing out loud. This personality trait often caused a lot of friction between the two of us in my childhood years. See, when I needed to hear and feel things in a more calm and affectionate way, be coddled, expecting her to understand that; When my needs weren’t met, it pained my heart. Making me feel a bit inadequate at times while, simultaneously applying that same sentiment to her.
By Pharaoh Essensual5 years ago in Families
Lessons in Humanity
My mother, by no means, fits into the stereotype of the “boss mom”. She struggled with her anger, was not affectionate and at times was abusive. So when I saw this prompt, I initially scoffed and kept scrolling. The problem is that I could not get this prompt out of my head! I started to reflect on our relationship and really consider a lesson that she put years of effort into teaching me. I found that this is a lesson that has shaped me greatly.
By Anastasia Anderson5 years ago in Families
Mom: My Optimistic Motivator. Third Place in Boss Mom Challenge.
As a child, I was big on creating acrostic poems. Everyone and everything that meant something to me landed a leading role in these poems, including my mom. This interest started when I was about seven years old and continued for at least three years. Once I turned ten and matriculated to high school, I knew I had to step up my game. I mean, these were poems that only a mother could love. Okay, perhaps I am exaggerating, but I've included a portion of my masterpiece below, so you can get my point. This specific poem was dedicated to my mom, Dawnett.
By Donziikinz5 years ago in Families
Boss Mom
My mom taught me how to cook. Variants of meat, dyed red with chili sauce and garlic powder. Fried rice crisped to perfection. Breads of every flavor: rosemary, honey and herb, banana, sourdough -filling the house with a sweet aroma that always made my mouth water. I would need these skills in college, she’d say. I would cook for my family, she’d hope. I was excited to learn -to pick up a knife and chop and dice. I’m not a very good cook. I set off the smoke alarm in the kitchen. Twice.
By Sarah Mwangi5 years ago in Families
