Looking For Pearls: "I Was Raised By..."

Saturday, June 4, 2022

"I Was Raised By..." - A Lesson in Gratitude

"Love your parents. We are so busy growing up, we often forget they are also growing old.” (Unknown)

My mother has been on my mind lately.

A Mom selfie with sibs and in laws - 2021. Makes me smile!

Somehow, as the unknown sage above noted, I've acutely noticed my own "growing up" and advancing age over the last few years: my retirement from the world of work and move into a more "leisurely" life; my own increasing aches and pains (When did just getting up out of a chair become an act to be accompanied by a mighty "groan and shuffle"?).

But somehow I'm shocked by the fact that my mother has been aging and slowing down. Since I only see her maybe once a year so, I think my memory serves as a kind of "placeholder" - freezing her in a snapshot of my last visit - and ignoring the fact that time rolls on, eroding us all.

Mom on her 75th birthday - 12 years ago

But she is aging. And inevitably, she will be gone - certainly sooner than my mind could ever imagine, because my mind cannot comprehend a world without my mom. That is the fate that awaits all of us. A fate that we blithely ignore or dismiss for most of our adult lives, until the reality of it can no longer be avoided. And when that realization genuinely comes to us, we have a choice. We can either resist it or mourn it - greedily trying to hang on to what we call "our self" and the world we know. Or we can work to gratefully remember all that we've been given during this time called "our Life", and we can work to begin letting go of all seems so "important", for that which is Divine and Higher. We can take the time to remember what we Love.

The Blazers' biggest fan - Spring 2021

So this entry is about being grateful. Grateful for all that my mother - Mary Ann Schnorenberg - has given me over my lifetime. It is inspired by a piece of writing that I did 3 years ago that I had forgotten about. It was part of a writing assignment that an English teacher I was subbing for had given her students. It was in connection with a book they were reading (I forget the title). But as the students worked on writing their pieces, I decided to do the same as I sat at the teacher's desk. And this is what I wrote. I'm forever grateful to this teacher for the inspiration she unknowingly gave me that day.

It's called "I Was Raised By..." I don't know if I ever shared it with anyone, but I want to now. Thanks to my sister Katy for many of the photos here.

I WAS RAISED BY… (Feb. 2019)

I was raised by a small woman, but a strong one.

A lover of books, and a poet.

A digger in the dirt who planted flowers and green beans.

And sometimes just liked to sit and watch them grow.