This is probably the most difficult thing I have ever written…mostly because it involves emotions and feelings that have stretched throughout my life. Since Mother’s Day is here, I felt obliged to dedicate this post to mothers everywhere and especially to my own.
I traveled to a nearby town to have lunch with my Mom just before writing this. Driving back home, I thought a great deal on her and how my life is so much richer because of her. I was her first born of five children. 
Memories of my Mother that are closest to my heart are the small gentle ones that I have carried over from the days of my childhood. They are not huge events, but they have stayed with me through life, and when I am very old, they will still be near . . . memories of Mom drying my tears, reading aloud, cutting cookies and singing as she did, listening to the prayers I said as I knelt with my forehead pressed against her knee, tucking me in bed and turning down the light.
They have carried me through the years and given my life such a firm foundation that it does not give way when life’s storms arrive. But mostly I remember every morning before school. How she'd say "Hey, honey!" just I was walking out the door to catch the school bus. And me stopping and turning around and saying "What?" And her saying "I love you." And me rolling my eyes like I just wanted to hurry up so I didn't miss the bus. I'd start going again and she'd say "Hey, honey!" and I'd pretend I was so annoyed cause she was wasting time and I had to go catch the bus. And how secretly it was my favorite part of every day. When I saw the bus coming, I would yell “Here it comes.” So she could hear and wouldn’t worry that I had disappeared…all the while she was watching from a window.
In those childhood days, we didn’t have much.
But I don’t recall us ever wanting for anything. What we did have was a family that loved each other. No one worries about you like your mother, and when she is gone, the world seems unsafe, and things that happen make you feel uneasy. You cannot turn to her anymore, and it changes your life forever. There is no one on earth who knows you from the day you were born; who knows why you cried, or when you'd had enough food; who knew exactly what to say when you were hurting; and who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childhood goes with her. She is the creature of life, the giver of life, and the giver of abundant love, care and protection.
Such are the great qualities of a mother…my mother. The bond between a mother and her child is the only real and purest bond in the world, the only true love we can ever find in our lifetime. There's nothing like your mother's sympathetic voice to make you want to burst into tears. What any mother wants is to hold her babies when they’re small and to be held by them once they’ve grown up. Its empty arms that a mother dreads. Mothers are endowed with a love that is unlike any other love on the face of the earth.
I am thankful that I still have my Mother and I can’t imagine life without her to turn to regardless of how old I get. Now she is much older and feebler. But I see her eyes light up when she sees me. I owe her so much. What return then could I, who am myself growing older, give her for the many things I owe her? Then I remembered when I visited with her a few weeks ago, she asked me to go to her beauty shop appointment with her. When we got there she proudly introduced me as her son. Then she went on to tell everyone what a good man I had become and of all the things I was doing in my life. It made my face turn red but I knew my Mom was proud of me…and that touched me deeply. I realized that spending time with her and talking like we did today meant more to her than anything I could get her.
So I can tell you that there is no greater heaven than the heart of a loving mother. She takes care of you when you are still in her womb. She nurtures you after you are born. She hurts when you fall, she celebrates when you make your first steps. She is the only person who you can trust to genuinely care about you. She loves you as she loves herself. Her heart is your true paradise. She taught me what's important, and what isn't. And I've never forgotten. Were it not for the way she taught me to look at the world, to see the life at play in everything, I would have to be lonely forever.
I love you Mama.
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