What I Learned from My Mother

Photo credit: lisafanucchi from morguefile.com

I learned from my mother how to love

the living, to have plenty of vases on hand

in case you have to rush to the hospital

with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants

still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars

large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole

grieving household, to cube home-canned pears

and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins

and flick out the sexual seeds with a knife point.

I learned to attend viewings even if I didn’t know

the deceased, to press the moist hands

of the living, to look in their eyes and offer

sympathy, as though I understood loss even then.

I learned that whatever we say means nothing,

what anyone will remember is that we came.

I learned to believe I had to power to ease

awful pains materially like an angel.

Like a doctor, I learned to create

from another’s suffering my own usefulness, and once

you know how to do this, you can never refuse.

To every house you enter, you must offer

healing: a chocolate cake you baked yourself,

the blessing of your voice, your chaste touch.

~ Julia Kasdorf

________________________________________________

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.

~ Terri Guillemets

What I Learned from My Mother

Photo credit: lisafanucchi from morguefile.com

I learned from my mother how to love

the living, to have plenty of vases on hand

in case you have to rush to the hospital

with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants

still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars

large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole

grieving household, to cube home-canned pears

and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins

and flick out the sexual seeds with a knife point.

I learned to attend viewings even if I didn’t know

the deceased, to press the moist hands

of the living, to look in their eyes and offer

sympathy, as though I understood loss even then.

I learned that whatever we say means nothing,

what anyone will remember is that we came.

I learned to believe I had to power to ease

awful pains materially like an angel.

Like a doctor, I learned to create

from another’s suffering my own usefulness, and once

you know how to do this, you can never refuse.

To every house you enter, you must offer

healing: a chocolate cake you baked yourself,

the blessing of your voice, your chaste touch.

~ Julia Kasdorf

________________________________________________

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.

~ Terri Guillemets

Quote on respect for mother

Image: Nicole Hill/Getty Images

One of the very few reasons I had any respect for my mother when I was thirteen was because she would reach into the sink with her bare hands—BARE HANDS—and pick up that lethal gunk and drop it into the garbage. To top that, I saw her reach into the wet garbage bag and fish around in there looking for a lost teaspoon BAREHANDED—a kind of unbelievable courage.

 ~ Robert Fulghum

Quote on respect for mother

Image: Nicole Hill/Getty Images

One of the very few reasons I had any respect for my mother when I was thirteen was because she would reach into the sink with her bare hands—BARE HANDS—and pick up that lethal gunk and drop it into the garbage. To top that, I saw her reach into the wet garbage bag and fish around in there looking for a lost teaspoon BAREHANDED—a kind of unbelievable courage.

 ~ Robert Fulghum

Quote: Mother's Love

Photo: Growing up with Rice by NaPix -- (Time out)

Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not.

~James Joyce

Quote: Mother's Love

Photo: Growing up with Rice by NaPix -- (Time out)

Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not.

~James Joyce