Sunday 12 May 2013

A Conversation with My Mother

It's Mother's Day today, and I find myself having a conversation with my Mom. It's bittersweet for me because my mother passed away in 2001.  As I sit here, I'm reminded of a conversation I had with her when she was still living.

Her own father passed away when she was only 18 years old, and he is buried about a ten minute drive from the house I grew up in.  But we never went to visit his grave.  I once asked my Mother why we never went to visit Grandad's grave and she said that it was because she didn't feel connected to him there.  That it was just his body, not his spirit that was buried there and that if she wanted to talk to her dad, she could sit on the couch in her living room and do just that.

I'm currently re-reading The Celestine Prophecy, a book I first read nearly 20 years ago, at my mother's suggestion.  I "coincidentally" came across a copy of it last weekend. If you've read the book, you know there's no such thing as a coincidence.  Anyway, I'm at a part where it talks about why were we born into certain families and to think about your parents and what they stood for.

This is why I started talking to my Mom today.  My Mom was into spirituality, believed in reincarnation and aliens.  Yes, she had read every book by Shirley Maclaine!  She also believed that if you didn't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all, and that it was better to be kind than to be right.  My mother was graceful, patient, tolerant and incredibly stubborn!  She had her beliefs and convictions and no one could convince her otherwise.  In other words, she had faith.

I know why I was born to her.  She taught me all these things (some are still a work in progress, I must admit).  She is buried next to her father in the family plot, and I have since moved far across the ocean from her. But that's okay, because I know that, today, while I sit on my couch in my own living room and have a conversation with her, she is listening.  Thanks Mom, for all of it.