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For the Eternal Gratitude I Have For My Mother; Today and Everyday


Well, its dawn on yet another Mother’s Day. Even though the weather outside hardly seems like it is May, on the inside my home and heart is filled with so much love it is as warm as the Caribbean. No, it is not the thermostat that creates the warmth that makes our house a home, it is the love of my mother. 


Looking back at my first Mother’s Day post I wrote only a year into my blog (http://bit.ly/2pxnPoB) I still feel each word is as true as the day it was posted. There really isn’t much more I needed to say about my mother and I, until I realized there was.


My mother is an extraordinary woman. I know that will be said about many of your moms as well but trust me my mother is extra extraordinary. 

She is the kind of woman that has to be screamed at to sit down for two-seconds when she is sick so that she can rest. She is the kind of woman that never, ever thinks of herself. She is the first to do for anyone else around her no matter how well she knows them. I am pretty sure she would peel the skin off her back if she thought that would save anyone she loved from any amount of suffering they are enduring. She turns herself inside out ensuring my brother and I have all that we need whether it is a scrambled egg or college tuition. She supports all of our dreams whole heartedly and has loved us even during the moments we didn't deserve it. 


As I think of the thirty-five years I have been alive I know I wouldn't have made it nearly as far without my mother. What I also have to admit to myself, and you all, is that I wouldn’t have wanted to. 


As I laid watching HBO’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” (http://bit.ly/2qimU8A) recently I got hung up on Deborah’s characterization of how her life had been changed because her mother died when she was a toddler. She didn't have a mother to protect her, nurture her, or guide her. Many tragic things happened to Henrietta and thus her family because of it but I became overwhelmed with the thought of my life without my mother. 


There are those we think we cannot live without but then there is the one person I can’t imagine living without, and for me that is my mother. 

She embodies the emotional strength, bravery, and physical determination I hope I inherit. No matter what I am dealing with knowing she I can call on her both figuratively and literally makes it all better. Sure I went through teenage years where I thought she was my enemy because she didn't think I needed that third ear piercing as much as I did or want to get me my own phone line but we powered on. 


She is my favorite person to spend the day with while out on blog adventures and my most beloved travel companion. I yearn for her to see the world through my eyes and know that anything is possible, that this is only the beginning, and that there is so much beauty, joy, and love ahead. I want to comfort her as she always comforts me. She is of course more than my mother and best friend. She is the Big Edie to my Little Edie, the bread to my butter, the inspiration to my being.

These are the reasons I hope that spending this Mother’s Day, although without her mother, will still be the special celebration she deserves.

The deep, raw love I have for my mother is not only how I feel today on this Mother’s Day but also every day I am lucky enough to open my eyes. No matter how long either of us live this will have always been my truth. 

As for the future Mother’s Days I look forward to spending beside my mother and my daughter, I have summed that up pretty well already (http://bit.ly/2r5jrwU). 

So Happy Mother’s Day to you all out there.

I hope you spend the day grateful, as I am, for the woman (women) who made you all that you have become. 


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