My mother has a blog - Ruthlace - and today she has a post about Mother’s Day.  Amid all the praise of mothers, she writes that:

Is there any one of us who will not agree that in addition to the many joys of motherhood and the endless rewards, motherhood is a four letter word called “work” as well as the four letter word we call “Love.”

I can hear the “AMEN!” resounding from all the mothers who are reading this.  She continues to talk about her feelings about her own mother - known as Mama Baird to us grandchildren:

I was in my early fifties when my mother died at age 88. Even though I had a husband and seven children, I will never forget the sense of loneliness and loss I felt to realize my mother was no longer in my world.

I later wrote a ballad in her memory:

Mother has put this ballad to music, and it’s a beautiful song. Here are the lyrics.

Today Is The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

1. My mother grew old. . . had lines etched in her face
Worked hard all her life. . . with uncommon grace
She lived by the Bible. . . Each day and each mile
She taught me her secret. . . of life with a smile

Refrain:

She said. . . Today is the first day
Of the rest of your life.
Don’t borrow trouble
With yesterday’s strife.
Take time. . . smell the flowers
That’s worth living for
Then pick up each new day
And fill it with joy!

2. Widowed while young. . . Mama worked in the mill
Washed on a scrub-board. . . Brought wood up a hill
She sang as she labored. . . to stay out of debt
And taught me this lesson. . . I’ll never forget

3. One day I said, Mama,. . . Your life has been hard
You’ve buried two babies. . . Out in the church yard
You’ve known all the heartache of struggling for bread,
She smiled through her tears and these words she said:

She said. . . Today is the first day
Of the rest of your life.
Don’t borrow trouble
With yesterday’s strife.
Take time. . . smell the flowers
That’s worth living for
Then pick up each new day
And fill it with joy!

4. Her old fashioned tea cakes. . . We ate the last crumb
Her old fashioned flowers. . . She had a green thumb.
She lived by the Bible. . . each day and each mile
She taught me her secret. . . of life with a smile!

My daughter gave me my Mother’s Day gift last night. It’s a keychain - a ridiculously expensive designer keychain that looks like a miniature wallet that opens up to hold tiny pictures. My daughter has had one just like it for awhile and I’ve admired it many times. I’ll put photos of Sweet Stuff and Sunshine in it.  It was a perfect gift!

I wasn’t as creative with my gift to my mother. I gave her a Keurig coffee maker exactly like mine. When she got it Tuesday she told me that she had just broken her old coffee maker the day before. So YEA for good timing!

I’ve read that more phone calls are made on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year.  I think that’s indicative of how strong the ties are between mothers and their children.  It’s a unique and strong bond.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 6:52 am and is filed under Blog Recommendations, Family, Remembering, Sweet Stuff & Sunshine, That's My Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.