The Magic of Mom

The other day Christie, Maddie and I were playing and Maddie fell down and scraped her toe.  She started crying and immediately passed me by to get to her Mom. I have to be honest and say there was a small part of me that wished she would have wanted to come to me to make her feel better, but then I remembered the magic of Mom's. 

You see, I always thought that my Mom was magical, but witnessing first hand that my daughter went to Christie for comfort, I started to think that the powers that my Mom has are nothing special, as it appears that it is a common trait of all mothers.  Maybe my Mom was no different than your Mom or anyone else's. 

The whole train of thought made me really think about my Mom and whether she really was as magical as I believe, or just the extremely biased views of a loving son.  Sure, she has been there to pick me up more times than I could even try to count.  She has sacrificed most of her life to give my brother and I so much, both in the material sense but also the emotional sense.  I think of all the times she believed in me when I had no belief in myself.  Yep, that's all magical to me, but what about to the rest of the world?

Then I thought about a Christmas years and years ago.  I was probably in Jr. High at the time.  We had some neighbors that might have been struggling financially but were extremely proud and would not accept assitance.  So Mom went out and bought a whole Christmas dinner...turkey, dressing, the whole lot.  I remember setting it on their porch, ringing the doorbell and running to hide.  I remember looking from behind a parked car as they opened the door and stood in amazement as they looked upon the food that was left for them. 

I thought about the fact that my Mom with a few other ladies gets birthday dates from the local nursing home and they get a cake and a few small gifts and show up to celebrate a complete stranger's birthday. Spending time with people that most of society has choosen to forget.  Letting these people know that they are not forgotten and are still loved.

I thought about the Christmas that my Dad died.  My Pops died on Thursday, December 22.  It's impossible to get a funeral arranged in 24 hours, so you do the math.  That's right, we had to go through Christmas, knowing that we still had to bury my Father.  If it was up to me, we would have not celebrated Christmas that year.  It should have been the worst Christmas ever...and in many ways, it was.  But I think about my Mom putting her foot down and letting her family know in no uncertain terms that we WOULD be celebrating Christmas.  In retrospect, some of my most treasured Christmas memories come from that difficult season.  All because my Mom understood the importance of going through it even if we didn't want to.

I thought about how now that she's retired, she has told me on at least a half dozen occasions that she went to a funeral at the church of someone she may not have even known personally, but she just wanted to make sure that there were people there.  She told me how blessed she felt to have so many present for my Dad's funeral and the least she can do is repay that to other's who may be going through loss.

I thought about the fact that my Mom probably keeps Hallmark in business.  There is a good chance that if you're reading this, you've gotten a card, or 20 from my Mom.  My friends tell me often about getting a card in the mail from my Mom and I've heard that story from so many people.  She loves to let people know she is thinking of them and it amazes me how many people she does this for.

I came to the conclusion that my Mom IS magical.  Sure all Mother's have a certain magic with their kids and that is amazing and beautiful and sent from God.  And my Mom has that "Mother Magic"....but I truly believe that her magic transcends the "Mother Magic" and is felt by so many people.  The neighbors who got a mysterious Christmas dinner, the elderly folks who had a stranger show up to celebrate their birthday, the people who are mourning the loss of a loved one that look over their shoulder to see my Mom paying respects, the countless people that receive cards for birthdays, holidays and special occasions.  It's pretty obvious that it is no trick of light nor slight of hand.  My Mom is amazing.

Tomorrow is her birthday and I thought it might be a good time to share with the people in my world how blessed I am to have the Mom that I do.  I'm so happy to get to celebrate another birthday with her and know the next year will continue to be magical for all that are priviledged to be loved by her.