God could not be everywhere

…and so he made mothers.

And now, I find I have to resort to God quite frequently, especially when I have an argument in my head. The answers are also a little difficult to recognize and decipher because Mom had a voice. God moves in mysterious ways, her wonders to perform. What? You didn’t know God was a woman? Hmmph!

As it happens, every day is Mother’s Day for me.  I had the best Mother in the world. I am lucky my son’s affection makes it a happy Mother’s Day for me each day.  I am happy to admit that my life revolves around him just as my Mom’s life revolved around me.

My Mom was a teacher by profession. She was wise, loving, generous. Always cheerful even in the face of the worst times we had. She was also a wonderful writer and cook par excellence. Last year, while looking for a particular recipe, I found her diary and happily settled down to read.  This prompted me to take down my box of letters and read the ones she’d written to me. My Mom wrote beautiful letters. Besides  the usual stuff, her letters were full of wisdom. Each letter had a take-away. I’d like to share some of this wisdom here, because I think they make great quotes:

When she advised me to keep a journal:

My Mom wrote: “Diary writing is far more than a way of exorcising one’s unhappiness. The effect is extraordinary. Distanced on paper, troubles shrink to their true size. You can regard them objectively and see how temporary they are”

About the joy of letter-writing:
My Mom wrote: “When spoken words failed, written words kept us close” (Tweet this)

About reading:
My Mom wrote: “Books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden to ourselves” (Tweet this)

When my Mother left us on Feb 8, 2010, she seemed to take away so much with her. But I realized, as I looked back on life, that she also left so much within us. Which is why we talk about her everyday, and sometimes, it actually feels as though she is with us. Except we can’t physically touch her.

She had such a fabulous attitude and had the gift of viewing things positively, always. I remember, during the summer months, a lot of tiny ants turned up in our kitchen. Consequently, we would create little moats of water and keep food stuff  safe from these ants. If, by chance, we left something on the counter top, we could rest assured that the place would be swarming with the little fellas.

Anyway, on one such occasion, there was a tray with water, in which we had kept some juice bottles. And our friends, the ants, managed to reach the rim of the tray, only to find the little strip of water stopping them from reaching the bottles. Now, mind you, the bottles are airtight. Yet, the tiny specks of the sweet syrups managed to get the ants there. Can ants smell? I don’t know.

So – back to our story. I don’t know what might have happened, but I think one of us must have accidentally kept one of the bottles very close to the rim of the tray. And, sure enough, these ants (probably the ones that qualified for the Olympic long jump) managed to get on the bottle. Which my Mom discovered the next time she went into the kitchen. She called me. As I entered the kitchen, I saw her hunched over the counter top, watching intently. She beckoned me close, as though the ants would hear her if she spoke, and pointed to the juice bottle. I was stunned to see the droves of tiny ants busily juicing it up.

All worked up, I opened my mouth to rant and my Mom burst out laughing. That stopped my laughter in its tracks and I looked at her, question marks all over my face. And she said, “Vidya – they’ve worked so hard to get there. Don’t you think they deserve it?”. That was so funny and of course, I laughed too.

From that day on, whenever we were careless enough to leave something on the counter top – or anywhere else and saw ants on it – we looked at each other and sedately said “They deserve it”. This applied to so many other things too.

Oh, the wonderful memories!

Today, on Mother’s Day, I especially value life and everything my Mother meant to me, taught me, nurtured in me. She influenced so many lives and it warms my heart to know that so many remember her with love, and tell me that they do. I am grateful to all of them. And I am grateful for all that she taught Vidur, my son, about kindness, value, love and being gentle. She adored Vidur.

And so, I share some photos that were very special to Mom:

 11-day old Vidur in Grandma’s arms

She was very proud to give Vidur  his first bath. He was eleven days old

Vidur, six months old. Happiest baby. Always laughing.

Mom and Vidur at an outing

And here is my bouquet to all  my Mommy friends – 

The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world!

And now, let us head off to the lovely Unknown Mami’s blog and give her a group hug, and travel the world from there, together.

Happy Mother’s Day!