Marvelous Monday

There’s a lot to celebrate today… lots of years, that is. Oddly, this is the 84th Marvelous Monday post and I was born in ’84. So yay! Here I sit on my 30th birthday, excited for the next decades to come, and so full of gratitude for the most important woman in my life. My mother.

It could be another post about how much I love her, but that’s a given for me. I’ve been blessed with two parents for whom “mother” or “father” defined unconditional love.

No, this is about my respect for her. In her years of being a mother (for which she has 37), there have been the usual ups and downs. Sisterly fights, brotherly bruises and everything in between. There has been love and love lost. Sad tears, drunk tears, alligator tears, happy tears. Maniacal laughter, genuine laughter, from the belly and never gonna stop laughter. Hugs of love, hugs of tolerance and hugs of something that cannot be explained- a feeling that has no words. This is my mother.

She is the woman who pushed me to be more, do more and, most importantly, expect more. From me. From you.

Thirty years ago when she was sharing a cup of coffee in L&D at Abington Hospital, she was not expecting to raise a strong-willed, live off-the-cuff daughter. She didn’t know that after 13 years with this daughter, her own husband would pass and she would be left with 4 children had over 15 years, ranging in more than ages, but in needs and wants… She was just a mom having her second child. Her second daughter.

Our lives parallel in that way. In the way of 2 daughters, grown in love. A life that has struggle, but so much more triumph. Friends and family surrounding. Love that is ever-building. A partner in the whole game making the days more bearable- dare I say enjoyable. But there is so much more I have to learn. In 30 years I’ve watched my mother raise us, as well as our friends. She’s taken everyone under her wing- she’s Mrs. Worth Susan, and she is who my friends want to talk to when they need a shoulder and who I call when I need a voice of reason. She is one of the only people I call just to say hi. She is what unconditional love means.

I respect her for all she has taught me, but more so, because she will always be there to teach and to learn. While she’s loving me so completely and navigating the path of grandparent-hood, she never forgets to listen to what’s happening in our world and offer sound advice. She is never over telling me when I’m wrong, and best of all, when I’m right. She never stops telling me she loves me, she supports me. She’s never let me fall too hard that I break- no matter how shattered I’ve felt.

It’s been 30 years. I’ve known you longer than anyone else in my life, now or ever. I know what your heart sounds like from the inside. I love you, Mom.

Thank you for this life.

 It’s a marvelous Monday! Have a beautiful week, Reader!