Monday, June 1, 2009

LESSONS OF LOVE


My mom loves Bambi! Okay seriously, who doesn't? However, my mother is drenched in the after affects of too much Disney. I am grateful for all of the imagination she birthed in me throughout my life. She saw the softer side of life, and invited me into it. She taught me to accept people the way they were, to love the unloved and the unlovely. Her tender ways planted so many seeds in my heart, and the fruit of those blooms are full of grace. Her short little lessons in love held strong to my soul. Her teachings were like putting on a fuzzy pair of mittens. Once we were out shopping and came across a man in a wheelchair while standing in line. Mom didn't say a word, just gave me that don't stare kind of look. When we left she said, "You see that man in the wheelchair? Well he's just like you, never judge a person for being disabled." (and then I had to ask what disabled meant?) I thought about that man all day, and never forgot him since. The color of that memory hasn't faded into my 40's. The small town I was raised in had a family of Albino people living there. I remember them so distinctively. Not just because of how they looked, but because of the way they were treated. The stares, the whispers, the pointing fingers and because I noticed nobody talked to them. Once while my mother and I saw them in town. She looked at them for a moment, then glanced at me. She whispered, "Aren't they beautiful!"

That's the kind of mother I have. She's a sweet soul! Because of her I learned to search a man's heart before you judge him. She had the ability to see through a child's eyes, and read life with a child's heart. Thanks Mom for the many virtues you instilled within me. I Love You.

2 comments:

Juliet said...

Teffany,
Your are a lovely person for feeling this deeply and writing about it. My mother was also a sweet soul.

Enchanted Mixtures Lavender Farm said...

Thank you Juliet... It would have been a pleasure to have met your mother.