to vish about all types of mothers

[Guest guest]

vish wrote:

....For the past 2 weeks my wife and I have been outof town with my widowed Mother-in-law for a visit back East for her90th birthday party and family reunion. I learned so much from her.Every day, come what may, she performs her prayers in the Catholictradition. Every event which occurs, she accepts with balance andpatience...When she prays, she asks God to help those in need...She views all that comesto her as God's Grace. Thus, she does not fight or argue or becomeangry with God, but accepts His Will... with Him.As I watched her interact with the 70 family members at her birthdayparty, I realized that this woman had an immense positive effect onall these people. Her simple, kind, loving actions reverberatedthrough all the generations of her family and friends...that the most simple actions have the mostprofound effect and that keeping true to one's core principles bringsone into a very deep and personal relationship with God. Faith is strengthened by years of prayer and adherence to theprinciples of one's religion, and God's power and strength grows inone's life as one surrenders to His Will. I offer these reflections to you all as her gift.

 

Dear vish ~ reading about your Mother-in-Law reminded me so much of my grandmother, Bertie, who died some year ago. Her life was simple, and she lived her faith, though she rarely spoke of it. She had her own form of meditation, which she did every single day. She suffered through much, but always radiated peace and happiness to others. I believed it is the time I spent with my (maternal) grandmother is what saved me. Living with the kind of abuse that I did, My own mother was too crushed by the abuse we all suffered at the hands of my father to really help us very much. But she did get us to the "country" every year. Bertie was the one positive anchor; I instinctively knew that she loved me, though she never said the "words. Me and my sister, and then, later on, my brother, spent every summer there. When I was older and had been reading about Buddhism and Hinduism, I thought of her as the zen master of Tucker Hill, Virginia (very rural, sparsely populated, agriculture based economy,).

 

By the time I was a young child, she and my grandfather had moved to the family home in Tidewater, Virginia. The simplicity of her life and the way she brought impeccable attention to every action, no matter how small, impressed itself deeply in my heart, and brought me the peace I so needed. I remember sitting with her around the big kitchen table (which was where almost everything happened) and cleaning freshly picked green beans, then snapping off the ends (or cutting when I was older) and then snapping them in half. Once we had a lot of green beans, we'd take them over and put them in the big pot on the stove. She always encouraged me to sing. She'd say, "LInda, go out and swing and sing." And I would, sing to the field of growing corn and singing, making my own song. In that simple way she nourished my creativity. These only two small examples, but it is a snapshot of the example she was to me and my sister and brother.

 

Without her loving presence in my life, I don't believe I would have survived. She was an angel.

 

Jai Maa and all mothers everywhere

LindaIt's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here.