MY MOTHER SAID, LESSON 1

Create a writing nook.  Carve out time.   Cement deadlines.

Starting out, Lesson 1, these are the 3 C's of Beginners College Writing Course

The Prompt

 

MY MOTHER USED TO TELL ME ...

Pretty is as pretty does.

What if Jesus comes while you're acting like this?

I remember her sitting beside me on the porch swing saying this as the sun came up the horizon in the east looking at me and sharing its rays of sunshine with the cornfield to reach our green grassy lawn and finally us.  What I'd done is long forgotten, but her words remain 50 years later.

The glory to come is nothing compared to the trial of today.

At first I didn't know that this was scripture, LOL.  Just thought it was my mom.

Look for the big things.  

This is ponderous, isn't it?

I tried to be fair, but life isn't fair.  

She raised 6 children and was the wife of a minister.    

Well, do what he said.

This could be said in regards to my father if I was disagreeing, or she might say it about Jesus' words in some Bible scripture; interchangeable, always apropos.

You'll discover other things I've done for you later on.

She said this after cleaning our house while we were on a long vacation taken after our son passed away.  She did things like sofa diving, and cleaning our parquet floor on her hands and knees.  

But it was prophetic. After she passed, this thought came to mind again and again.   

Often I think of the wisdom she had in raising us; the gifts she gave, and her tried and true sayings that come to mind when I need them.  She gave us more than material things, or acts of love, she gave us coping skills for life -- "things I've done for you."

I miss my mother.

At the age of 19, she left her parents' home in Kentucky to get married and live in Indiana.

Here I'll  say it for myself, "Me, too.  I miss my mother."