"Mother is the home we come from. She is nature, soil, ocean." (-Erich Fromm)

I like to think of my mom in this photo above, happily embarking on a new life as my grandfather walked her into a church on her way to marry my dad.  It was before the four of us came along, before she learned that she had MS, before many hardships she dealt with in her life.

I remember when I was quite young myself, thinking that I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be a mother...

After Eric was born, I remember thinking I couldn't remember what it was like NOT being a mother.  And after I had him, I understood my own mother so much better and loved her so much more than I ever had before he came along.

Eric has always had a great sense of humor which I like to think he inherited from my mom.  My mother could be a real Taskmaster, but she had a hilarious, very "British" sense of humor, and most often,  when I remember her these days, I find myself thinking fondly of her,  tilting her head back and joyously laughing out loud.  

It seems like just a moment ago...

and a lifetime ago, all at once...

Thanks for being my mother, mommy...

and thanks for coming into my life, Eric.  

A good friend of mine said that she had a bad relationship with her mother and with her siblings.   She said it informed her life, and I reminded her that she couldn't change the family she'd been born into, but she could make the family she wanted,  with her husband and her own children...

Happy Mother's Day, everyone.  Call your mother if you can.  And if you can't, remember her this weekend...