A
Tribute to Mothers
by Laurie Larsen
On the occasion of the St. Luke Union Church Mother/Daughter Banquet
When
I was in college, I took a creative writing course.
One of my first assignments was to think of the one person you respect
most in the world, then write a poem about them.
The first part of the assignment came very easily for me.
I knew instantly, without a shadow of a doubt, that the person I
respected more than anyone else in the world, was my mother.
The
second part, the actual writing of a poem, was another story.
I had never been a fan of reading poetry, much less ever attempted to
write any. But I was determined to
give it a try. So I conjured up all
the reasons why I loved my mother so much, and why she was such an inspiration
to me, and I wrote something.
By
literary standards, it was sadly lacking. I
believe I got graded a "C" on it.
Not exactly one of my better accomplishments.
But when I read it to my mother, she loved it.
She got tears in her eyes, she hugged me, thanked me.
I knew her feelings were genuine. She
went on to have it printed on paper in calligraphy, had it mounted, framed and
hung it in her house. As a matter
of fact, if you visit my mother's house today, 15 years later, you'll still see
that average, C-graded poem hanging in her dining room.
This
is what the poem says:
"Her
home is your home, please feel free.
Please
share with her the beauty in everything she sees.
Her
warm loving spirit shines like a beacon to those in despair.
Her
laugh is contagious and draws others to join in her joyous view of life.
Her
beauty is not a temporary, but an internal, permanent one.
She
is my mother, I can say with pride, love and gratitude."
Being
a mother is a full-time, full-effort, full-energy, full-brain job.
Now that I'm a mother myself, I even more fully appreciate the kind of
mother my mother was to me. Being a
mother is also a thankless job most of the time.
So I thought I would think back on a lot of those occasions that every
mother encounters, and acts out of love and necessity, but rarely gets a thank
you for:
1.
For every bout with morning sickness and every pound you gained with
pregnancy, thank you.
2.
For every minute of labor and the pain of childbirth, thank you.
3.
For every painstaking decision for those mothers who chose to adopt a
child, or welcome a foster child into her home, thank you.
4.
For every diaper you changed, and every load of laundry you did, thank
you.
5.
For every runny nose you wiped, and every food-covered face you cleaned,
thank you.
6.
For every time you missed out on a good night's sleep to rock a crying
child, thank you.
7.
For every time you left the church service or concert with a noisy child,
so everyone else could hear it, even though you'd miss it, thank you.
8.
For every Band Aid you applied to a scraped up knee, thank you.
9.
For every time you listened to your child and made her feel that
everything she said was the most important thing in the world, thank you.
10.
For every time you played Barbies, or threw a ball, or painted a picture
with your child, even though you knew you'd be up till midnight catching up on
housework, thank you.
11.
For every time you encouraged your child to achieve more than she thought
she could, and then celebrated that sense of achievement with her, thank you.
12.
For every time you made those tough decisions, which didn't make you very
popular at the time, thank you.
13.
For every time you conveyed to your child that if she can dream it, she
can achieve it, thank you.
14.
For every thing you've done to be a role model which will cause your
daughter to become a strong, healthy, positive, hard-working member of her
society and country of the future, thank you.
God bless mothers!