‘the only simple part about being a mother is how effortless it is to love your child.’
-maria wahlmark
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to all, on mother’s day
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art credit: Sara Pulver Art, Whimsical Cat Print, ‘Motherhood” or “Sockies”,
wh0 wouldn’t love to have a tangerine cat?
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“our holiday food splurge was a small crate of tangerines, which we found ridiculously thrilling after an eight-month abstinence from citrus. lily hugged each one to her chest before undressing it as gently as a doll. watching her do that as she sat cross-legged on the floor one morning in pink pajamas, with bliss lighting her cheeks, i thought; lucky is the world, to receive this grateful child. value is not made of money, but a tender balance of expectation and longing.”
-Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family’s attempts to eat locally. Lily, mentioned above, is her daughter, now also an author and an environmental scientist.
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image credit: pinterest
much love to my three daughters, each one now a mother too, on mothers day.
even if i only rarely called you by your right name on the first try.
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“mothers are not the nameless,
faceless stereotypes
who appear once a year on a greeting card with their virtues set to prose,
but women who have been dealt a hand for life
and play each card one at a time the best way they know how.
no mother is all good or all bad,
all laughing or all serious,
all loving or all angry,
ambivalence rushes through their veins.”
-erma bombeck
mother goose waits patiently on a rock in the river
luckily she has lots of stories to tell until baby’s big enough to swim.
“rock and roll is music, and why should music contribute to…juvenile delinquency?
if people are going to be juvenile delinquents,
they’re going to be delinquents if the hear… mother goose rhymes.”
-elvis presley
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huron river, argo park, ann arbor, michigan, usa – spring 2021
happy mother’s day
to my daughters
who have shared in
my seemingly endless graduations
and all of
our many, many other adventures and misadventures,
i am grateful to you and love you for this
you’ve made me happy
watching you all grow
from amazing daughters into amazing mothers
you are my idols.
“i don’t have to be perfect.
all is have to do is show up and enjoy
the messy, imperfect, and beautiful journey of my life.”
-kerry washington
oh, amy what have you done?
after a bit of an unexplained absence
and when rejoining us outside at her picnic
amy tells us that she was busy inside
setting her mother up with her old iPad
and is already feeling a bit of remorse and worry
that this choice may have created
a life-long need for her tech support
and round-the-clock calls to her
yearning for immediate answers
to the endless questions as to the subtleties and mysteries
contained within the world of apple products.
her brother quickly makes it clear
that he is hands-off
and is not in any way involved in this endeavor.
she speaks openly of her fear
while the only other things we know
that she is afraid of are mascots
though this new level of fear
may have even topped that.
we all reassure her that she is a good daughter for having done this
while at the same time privately harboring
our own personal doubts
about the potential risk/reward factor involved in her choice.
about 3 minutes went by
and this is a picture of amy re-entering her house
after she has been called in
to where her mother sits with her new iPad
and her first ‘question/glitch.’
she looks frightened and unsure of what awaits her inside.
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“choices are the hinges of destiny.”
-edwin markham