This is one of my favorite pictures of my mother and I.  There are actually two doggies in the picture, but you’ll never find the second one since she’s always snuggling under the covers.  The dog you can see is no longer with us.  He was quite old in this picture, which is from two and a half years ago.  The older I get, the more I resemble my mother.  But you can see very distinct differences between us – primarily that I am obviously warm-blooded, and she is not!  I’m in shorts, no socks, short sleeves, and I was probably still hot.  Mom is in long sleeves, long pants, socks, and she is probably still cold.

I am blessed to have my mother.  My mother didn’t have hers at my age.  And her mother didn’t have hers at her my age either.  Women from her side of the family didn’t seem to live long lives.  But of course, many women of that era lived hard lives, too.  They bore too many children, did a lot more physical labor than we do these days, and didn’t have top-rate healthcare.  We are very blessed to live in the times we live in.  My mother is in her 70’s and looks to be in it for the long haul, and I’m in my 50’s and intend to live long enough to aggravate a whole lot more people and write a whole lot more books.

For the last three years, in the fall, my mother has been able to come and visit for several weeks.  We work on projects together, like gardening or making jelly.  And we always get to take a trip.  One year we went to Santa Fe.  Last year we toured around southern Colorado, seeing Lake Isabel, Bishop Castle, the Royal Gorge, and The Great Sand Dunes.  I had never spent any time in Southern Colorado, and we had a wonderful time.  One year we spent the time just going up and down the mountains looking at the Aspen as they turned yellow and gold, and took pictures of enormous herds of elks above the  treeline in Rocky Mountain National Park.  This year when she comes, we are thinking about going to Mount Rushmore.  I was there as a young teen, and would love to go back.

These trips are awesome, in so many ways.  We talk and talk, something we haven’t really been able to do since I was a kid.  We learn more about each other, which is always a good thing.  We enjoy meals together, and can commiserate together about the things in our life that aren’t going right, and be joyful for the rest of it.  I get a chance to “treat” my mom, who lives on a limited income and has to count her pennies.  These trips are what I will look back on in my older years, and remember how blessed I was to experience them.

Someday, my mother will be gone.  We never know how long we have, and as we age, we learn to appreciate more that we still have our parents.  We can learn so much from them, despite the fact that when we are young, we think they don’t know anything.

I hope everyone who is a mother in any way, however remotely, has a wonderful day.

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