For Mom

God looked at Adam after He created him and saw that he was alone and had no one to help him.  Adam must have been a typical man because he needed help.  He was alone.  Now some guys say they are better off alone and have no desire to marry.  We say they have commitment issues.  Really, I think those men are simply afraid some woman might get close enough to see how messed up they truly are.  They need help.  They need a woman's touch.


My dad was and is my hero.  Growing up, I always saw him as the strong-man of the house.  There was not anything my dad could not do, or so I thought.  He was the great alpha lion in our little pride.  After I grew up, I began to realize that while Dad certainly was the leader of our family, there was another who really kept things together, Mom.  And like the alpha lion, Dad roared loudly but it was Mother who ran the day to day business of feeding, laundering, mending, cleaning, etc.  She did so with grace and love.  For her heart was for her family.


After my sister and I left home to start families of our own, we always came back to our nest, Mom and Dad's house.  She typically had a big meal prepared and wanted nothing more than for us all to come and eat it up.  That was her way of saying she loved us and always had a place for us.  She did not want a big fuss made over how hard she had worked.  She just wanted us to all be together around her table.  That made her happy.


Those things can be taken for granted.  We tend to act as if nothing will ever change but change is never far around the corner.  Mom passed away in 2003.  We all miss her certainly.  Dad remarried a few years later to a wonderful lady who is Mom to her brood of chicks.  I'm thankful that Dad has someone to come along side because he surely needs loads of help. My sister is making her own nest.  All 3 of her boys have left home.  One is married with 2 kids, while a second is marrying this Summer, and a third for whom much prayer is always appreciated.  Her nest is growing and she is much like our mother.  She loves having her chicks at home.  I remarried nearly 8 years ago and our 2 boys are growing like the proverbial weeds.  Before long they will be gone and coming back here to their nest.  


It goes without saying that Mom's nest has changed since her passing.  It had to.  She is gone from our presence but not from our lives.  What remains is the love she instilled in us all and is evidenced by the making of new nests for future generations.  Though change has occurred, I love how we have all continued even if the momma hen who kept us together as one unit is not with us.  


Some years ago I wrote what I call a poem for Mom, simply titled, "For Mother."  With your kind indulgence, I share it now.


I love you Mom.


Robby

For Mother

 

What price would you give for a mother such as mine

Nothing you could buy nothing you could find

Life to her was not fancy or expensive things

Big cars, fine houses, or diamond rings

Mom found joy in what she did for those she adored

A special dinner, a birthday cake, into these her heart was poured

She kept her home and all that that means

By giving herself without any strings

She’s gone now from my eyes but not from my life

See, she still guides me when I face my strife

Her heart lives on in me and in those she adored

We take her with us hearing her voice ever more

Now when I give myself for the ones that I love

I think of her, hoping she sees from above

Smiling down on me as I tread through

Seeing the person I am and seeing herself in me too

So what price would you give for a mother such as mine

No price, for she could only be a gift from the Devine