Each year the girls of the fam are invited over to party all weekend; it’s our Mother’s Day Extravaganza. It typically begins with dinner on Friday evening and ends with brunch on Sunday morning. This year my two aunts, my cousin, and his family joined in the festivities. Here are a few random thoughts from our time together …
Photo ops. If there’s one thing a member of our family learns at a young age, it’s how to get accustomed to any number of cameras in your face at any given time. Flashes going off every which way is just par for the course. The Paparazzi’s got nothin’ on us. Action shots, portraits, nut-ball poses, we’ve got ’em all. Sometimes that’s all we’ve got. So, what’d you do over the weekend? We partook in miscellaneous photo ops – and you? The upside: We can revisit our family … we can relive the laughter … anytime we wish. It’s enough to make the momentary blindness worth it.
Sweet lovin’s. My cousin’s little girl is one and a half. And cuter than ever. Seriously. She’s so cute you can’t even stand it. She’s also a little lady on the go. Still, she managed to take time out of her busy roadmap-to-discovery to give me some sweet lovin’s. When she walked up to me and held out her hands to be picked up; and then, once up, put her head on my chest, I melted. Just like butta. Suddenly I understood how parents might be tempted to spoil their children absolutely rotten. Because if she could talk in complete sentences – and happened to ask for a car at that precise moment – I would have said, “here, take mine.” Pretty sure.
Heart of thankfulness. You know, life has a funny way of not-at-all turning out as you had planned. Yet is still manages to shine. Much like the song suggests, God likes to bless the broken road. As I sat there yesterday morning, looking at the faces before me, I realized how each mother at that table has had her share of sorrow and disappointment. But they’ve kept going; they’ve also kept each other. And I realized my heart was full to overflowing with thankfulness. I was thankful to have a mom – and be surrounded by moms – who were stronger than they’ll ever realize. They taught me that it’s okay to cry – as long as the tears turn to laughter evetually. They taught me how to create and cherish memories. They taught me that they’ve got my back – and that I need to carry on the tradition. They taught me that yes, life may not be perfect – but it can be beautiful all the same.