All the memories exist somewhere between
the busy days, packed schedules, children’s lives, school, and work
The love and laughter of my own now
distant childhood reside in the stolen moments of reflection
I close my eyes, turn down the
hyper-speed of my mind and reflect
It is to the long, slow, easy days of
summer I return
I am a teenage girl sitting with my
mother on our front porch
I see us huddled together in waves of
conversation and laughter on warm summer evenings
Engaged in talks of my heart’s wishes on
love and life’s possibility
My constant wondering and questioning if
my heart would be fulfilled, if it would remain unbroken
I can hear even now my mother’s wise
countenance and certain reassurances that life will always work out
She just knew that
I sometimes doubted her, resisted her
insight but wanted to believe her
I reflect now that she just knew
Not necessarily that life turned out
But that we do survive in tact, better,
wiser, happier
And that laughter is the best healer
That it takes a thousand muscles to
frown
And just one to smile
The wishes of the heart may need to
grown up
Still her counsel that life works its way out is true
It has
Witness the love and the connection and
coming together
To celebrate and cherish the ones we
love
To cherish the Mother we love
I’m attached to the reflections of those
summer evenings
As I am attached to her, my mother
And to those sacred memories shared with
my mother many years ago as a hopeful young woman
When she had the wisdom to emulate
resilience and innocence
This wonderful world of memories forms
me, molds me, and shapes me
As a woman who has, too, become a mother
And the best that I can wish for and
dream of now
Is to offer to my children
The same wise words that life will
indeed always work out
That it takes fewer muscles to smile
than to frown
And trust that someday they, too, can
share a similar reflection
Thank you mom for it all!
(I wrote this October 6, 2006 for my mom in celebration of her 70th trip around the sun)
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