** I wrote the following for my mother last year on Mother's Day. In honor of her and all mothers, I am sharing it today. Happy Mother's Day!
Its nothing new how I feel about my mom. Everyone knows it. The thing that makes it so wonderful, is not just the way she feels and treats me, but the way she feels and treats others. I have always said God gave me an angel for a mother. It couldn’t be truer.
My mom’s ability to touch the people that come into her path however brief or long, intimate or new is done without a second thought. It is what she was born to do. To love. There isn’t a person she has met that she has not understood. That she has not known to be worthy of love. Because she knows and understands that there is no such thing as an unworthy human. She loves them like they should be loved. She is special to them because she knows they are special.
There have been times in my life where I found myself jealous of her feelings and kindness that she has shown to others. It tore me up. I felt it was unfair that she should be giving to “them” what belonged only to me. I see now how those were nothing but fearful thoughts. Fear that someone would take something away that belonged to me. That she wouldn’t have enough left for me. That she might find someone more worthy of her love and affection than me. Ridiculous, I know. Ridiculous because when you are so filled up with love, there is always more than enough. Always. When you give love so easily and naturally, like my mom does, that love only multiplies. And multiplies. Not just for the people who receive it but for the giver, too.
I learned that lesson this week. I was part of a Love Flash Mob. Two women struggling with serious illnesses were in need of permanent transportation. A request was sent out for a Love Flash Mob. We were asked to help these families. There was a limit on what we could donate. The reason was so we could have as many givers as possible. So the love could multiply. And in that was the true purpose of the Love Flash Mob. To spread the love. To as many as possible. Being part of the giving with 5,000 other givers was one of the most joyful experiences I have had. It is all about the giving. The giving of love. And that is a lesson my mom can teach in her sleep.
Remember Pig Pen from the Peanuts cartoon. He was so dirty that the dirtier he became the dirt cloud around him grew and followed him everywhere he went. That is the same for my mom. Only it’s a love cloud. All around her. Following her everywhere she goes. That cloud is strong even when the storms come. She always seeks loves. Always chooses love. When you are around someone with some kind of cloud around them, it is impossible to not be affected by it. Whether it is a dirt cloud or a love cloud.
How lucky for me it is a love cloud. How lucky for the world.
I love you, mom. With all my heart.
