Things My Mother Taught Me

Me and my Mom

on a Rocky Mountain Hike in 2008

I'm lucky to have one amazing mother and to be the mother of two amazing daughters.  I love my Mom and all that she gave to me growing up, most especially, a fun, exciting and secure childhood. Today I was thinking of lessons my mother taught me. There are thousands.  I'll just mention one.

I grew up in a university town.  My mom always used to tell me, "remember, all people are equal. Both the janitor and the university President should be the same in your eyes because each one of them has something to teach you if you just listen.  Just make sure you are listening to both.  You always want to be the kind of person who can relate to everybody, not just people at one end of the occupational or earning spectrum."

I have always lived and loved that advice.  It would be so damn boring and limiting to only enjoy people who are just like me.  Now as an expat, I'm living that advice in even more extended ways: learning from people who have a different geography, nationality, and faith.  They have so much to teach me too.

Mom, here is a gorgeous bit of prose I learned from people in Turkey.  I think it describes a mother's love exactly:

"Even after all this time the sun never says to the Earth, 'you owe me!'
Look what happens with a love like that.  It lights up the whole sky."

        ~Hafiz, Islamic Sufi poet