Mama love

Happy Mother's Day! Call yo mamas, write them, and if they're close - drive over there and give the big 'ol hug. Alas, my mother is 1,500 miles away, but from here (and via the flowers that arrived yesterday) I give her my thanks and love. I was blessed with quite the mama. 

My mother commands a room. Armed with red lipstick, blond hair, sharp wit, and standing 5'8" she is a force to be reckoned with. Which of course means that we've butt heads from time to time when I was growing up (I recently saw a movie that started with the line "Hell is a teenage girl..."). But she is strong and supportive. She is a natural leader, and happy to wear 4" heels and officially be the tallest woman in the room. 

My mother has a bit of magic to her. My sister, who was named after my mother, recently said that we were given a very romantic childhood. I'd never thought of it that way, but she was right. Every holiday had traditions, its own food and books and patterns. I was served homemade strawberry cake each birthday until I left home. We made snow ice cream in the winter. Mommy was always organizing the next activity, off to a meeting for a nonprofit or huge event she chaired, working on an essay, redecorating an entire floor, while making enough food for the entire neighborhood of kids to eat at our house. She taught us to try, explore, go, do. Join the team, take the trip, go well outside your comfort zone. Because of that, I have always felt capable of anything. Will it be hard? Sure. But thinking I *cannot* do something is a ridiculous concept. And that applies to all of us. 

My mother is a whole person. She isn't perfect, no one is. And so I know that I can make mistakes, and I certainly do, and all told still be a kind and good person. My mother and I are both passionate and impatient. We both have quirky humor. We are writers. And I hope that when I have children, they will absorb from me the same appetite for life, and love, that I got from my mother. 

Here's best advice I ever got from my mother, and this should come as no surprise now:

"Honey, if you don't have a good reason not to go somewhere, go." 

What's the best advice you ever got from your mother?