Moms must be the closest things to saints on this Earth.
Their patience is beyond question. Their love, without doubt. Their faith, endless.
They can be, depending on the situation, loving or stern. They can encourage or reprimand. They are doctors and disciplinarians. They can be sympathetic or indifferent. They will defend their children as well as hold them accountable. They will stand up for them and be the first to lecture them.
Moms will never cease to surprise us.
Growing up, I gave my mom plenty of reasons to throw her hands up in exasperation. Between the broken windows, the lousy grades, the trips to the principal’s office, flooding the basement, the times I knocked my little sister down and ran away, the whining for toys at the store, the high school parties broken up by police and God knows what else, my mom could easily have said, “enough.” If, in our family of seven kids there was one who excelled at getting in trouble, it was me.
“Oh, Billy,” she would say with the shake of her head.
But my mother, in her own way, always had my back and I knew it. She was tough when she wanted to be but often when it came to her kids, she was a softie and let us get away with a lot of nonsense. I don’t know she had it in her to really crack down on me like I deserved.
She had a beautiful smile and laugh that somehow made everything OK.
Even her in later years, in her failing health, and in her loneliness after the death of my father, she greeted me on my visits home with a joyous grin that make me feel like I wasn’t such a knucklehead. Our trips to Whidbey Island for pizza and beer, I will always treasure.
That’s what moms do. They make us feel better when we are at our worst. I know that’s what my mother did and I will miss her most for that.
Here, in honor of Mother’s Day on Sunday, are a few quotes about moms.
w “When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.” — Sophia Loren
w “Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.” — Pearl S. Buck
w Whenever something went wrong when I was young – if I had a pimple or if my hair broke – my mom would say, ‘Sister mine, I’m going to make you some soup.’ And I really thought the soup would make my pimple go away or my hair stronger.” — Maya Angelou
w “The love of a mother is the veil of a softer light between the heart and the heavenly Father.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
w “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.” — Oscar Wilde
And my favorite:
w “In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.” — N.K. Jemisin
On this Mother’s Day, when you see your mom, give her a hug, tell her thank you and tell her you love her.
You know she deserves it.
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Bill Buley is editor-in-chief of The Garden Island. He can be reached at bbuley@thegardenisland.com
