“You’re the driving force in my life”
There
are countless ways our mothers reaffirm their love for us. From bandaging our
bruises to cultivating our character, our mothers’ best interests are always
our own. How many of us remember receiving those little love notes from Mom in
our school lunchboxes? I hope most of us remember those small gestures. It is
the smallest gestures that stay with us long after the Christmas presents, the
birthday parties or the trips to Disneyland (not that I can speak from
experience on the latter).
Every
Autumn, my mother would attach a handwritten note to my tennis gear. Her
familiar print penmanship, with the loopy M’s and L’s, were comforting reminders
of my mother’s love during an away tennis match. The notes would sometimes wish
me luck, my mother knowing I was nervous about a particular match. Often, those
decorative cardboard notes would be simple ‘I love you’ declarations. The best
of my mother’s notes were the creative kind. She might wrap a package of peanut
butter crackers with ribbon and write kind words using each of the letters in
my first name. Loving. Intelligent. Nifty. Determined. Incredible. I’d sit on
the bus with the surprise note stapled to my brown lunch bag and think “how clever
of her”. It still surprises me every time I discover a caring note from Mom.
We
may not even be aware of all the ways our mothers show their love or influence
us. It’s impossible to thank them for all the small gestures that go a long way
in making our lives a little more comfortable. If my mother is anything like
your mother, you probably feel the same way. How do we show appreciation for
the women who love us enough to think of clever ways to fulfill our needs? I
suppose for some of us, we give back to our moms when they are able to see us
enjoying ourselves. My mother attended most of my tennis matches in high
school. Perhaps being able to see me play tennis, a game she taught me, is my
thank you to her. In some way, that is probably enough. But as children of
wonderful mothers, is it enough for us?
Mom-
I love you, for all the small gestures: the times you made sure I had enough athletic
tape to wrap my toe, the afternoons you spent baking cookies for my team, and
the drives home from my matches.
“Whenever I was down, you were always there to
comfort me”
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