Saturday, August 23, 2014

Reflections: Mothers

A mother: beautiful, hard-working, compassionate. 

My mami reflects these three and many more characteristics, but I never noticed until just recently. I had lived most of my life under my dad's influence. Listening at his philosophical feet, practicing soccer with him in the early mornings, having a political debate every now and then. Yet the hard work of my mom had been hidden by my dad's presence and smile. He was, mainly, a stay-at-home father. He worked, but my mom spent every night and day under the rock of nursing school and jobs at different medical facilities, while he took my siblings and I to our gymnastics practices and cello recitals and soccer practices. 



I see my mother now, and my older and wiser self sees all the little details I missed: her constant attention to the budget, giving us a warm towel to place on our stomachs whenever we had a belly ache, her absence that signified her struggles at school to learn about how to be a better nurse and provide an income to our family.

And I see the wrinkles of her leftover smiles side by side with the lines above her worried forehead. When she extends a hand, I reach out my hand in response; when she texts me a message of a broken English message, i respond with a quick a grammatical correction alongside an 'i love you.' 

Now that I've been spending more time with my mom, I am realizing how much I owe her.

I love you mami. Thumbs up to you

Sincerely,
Your college daughter

No comments:

Post a Comment