Our mom is our landing place.

She is light. She brings light.

God placed her with us to guide us. He filled her with the best parts of His compassion and instruction and fuel for her to give away. And, she does. When Steve, Russ, or I begin to quiver from just the stuff life deals – she’s where we go. Continual bits of wisdom…and finding our missing pieces and filling the holes. She hugs. Slowly and firmly with thankfulness and deep care like she has all the time in the world … because for us, she does. Being in the gaze of her eyes is like having the entire Milky Way grinning down on us. She reminds us who Christ says we are. She knows because, like us, she is scarred and it has heightened her compassion, made her even more radiant. She reminds us that “everything will be better in the morning”, and it always is. She is so tender that she applies instruction like little sparks with expectation that her fuel will start the fire. Because she is the fire.

She reminds us of simple truths like … when people are rude to us – don’t take it personal, it reveals who they are not who we are. Never is life so clear as when in her presence – so clearly loved. Her acceptance is intoxicating. She lives out unconditional love, tells us and her grands with calm certainty that love is the shortest distance between you and me, and that there are no shortcuts through the grill of life … and, we are growing through it. She has bled from making bad decisions of her own, had her self esteem trampled into the mud from unguarded boundaries being violated and she had bled out for us – because that’s what you do when people you love get sliced through the heart … you give them your blood-life … here, babe, take mine … it is fresh and warm … I have lots, I’ll just go back beneath the cross and get more. Few of us have ever seen her so pale from the endless supplies of compassion she gives, and those of us who have will never speak of that beauty to anyone else. She knows when we are ready for her words, we are really ready. And, she holds the light for our readiness because she knows the sweetness of the time being just right.

Thank you, Momma.

“If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.”

1 Corinthians 13:3-10 MSG