Message from your Daughter

It's Mother's Day. I decided to repost last year's Mother's Day post when I only had a few people reading. Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I send my daughter messages via my Message from your Mother series. Last year I asked my daughter to write a message for me for Mother's Day. Self indulgent I know. This year she gave me shoes. She said it was easier and that things have not changed - I'm still apparently, 'out of the box'. Reading it again makes me want to forget she was ever a teenager. Every other Mother out there will know exactly what I mean. Enjoy your day, ladies.

You know the world is changing when you ask your mother what she wants for Mother's Day and she suggests that you might like to write a post on her blog, Lilly's Life.

Gone are the days when an apron would have sufficed, or some chocolates, or even a card.

What can I say Mum, you've always been a bit 'out of the box'.

I've never written a blog entry before so when I sat down to construct this masterpiece (don't snigger Mum, you know it will be), I thought 'how best to kick the proceedings off?' and then I thought, 'I know... I'll start with something plagiarised.' After all, Hallmark doesn't make 50 billion dollars each year on Mother's Day cards for no reason. Sentimentality is a bit embarrassing really, so if you aren't the author of the pathetically schmaltzy words on your Mother's Day card, it's much more comfortable for everyone involved, primarily you.

Turns out the same theory applies to writing a Mother's Day blog entry.

So I started searching the internet for Hallmarkesque quotes that sum up how I feel about you. I found a lot of lovely quotes about mothers, such as this one:

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie." -Tenneva Jordan

Sweet isn't it?? I thought so too.

Except, we both know that you would never forsake pie for anyone. Not your child, a dying relative, a starving Ethiopian. [Side note: it's wrong to make the token starving person Ethiopian, isn't it. Let's change to starving Canadian, (not that they deserve to starve either, but you know what I mean)]. Anyway, point being, nice quote, but not really summing up the essence of you.

Then I found this deeply moving Shakespeare quote:

"Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime".Beautiful words from The Bard. I totally agree. Err, at least I might, if could understand what the quote means. It's just in here to make me look smart.

Then I found this Aristotle quote which I found to be particularly 'emotionally stirring, pulling on heartstrings' type stuff ."Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own."Not sure if Aristotle was intending to crack a joke when he spewed forth this little pearl. I'm thinking not, because philosophers are usually pretty serious dudes, are they not? I thought this one was hilarious (is it meant to be funny?) because it was stuck in the middle of all these 'my mother is an angel from heaven' type ones, which by the way don't sum you up either.

I mean you are pretty cool but you aren't an angel.

In fact, at times I would align you closer to the.... (joking).

Then, I finally thought, Mother's Day doesn't have to be about me in relation to you, it can just be about you and what I think makes you amazing.

So I thought I would tell you some random things I admire about you.

Like you are artistic, for example. Kids at school used to say our house looked like 'one of those houses out of a magazine'. You are amazing at knowing what 'goes' with what, and what colours look good with other colours. As for me, as you rightly point out I can't even tell the difference between blue and green half the time. I just know that sometimes I put on clothes and you look at me in abject horror.

I remember being at a 'retreat' aka conference for work last year and we had to go to this formal dinner party thing and I was in my hotel room squashed up against the bathroom door trying to take a photo of myself on my mobile phone to send to you for feedback on whether everything 'went' together or not. The photo didn't get through to you though so I called you to give a blow by blow account of the outfit. What would I do without you?

I also admire you for being resilient and tough. You've coped with things that would have driven me literally insane.

You're funny and witty. Just like Pop.

You have a really incredible work ethic that I will never be able to emulate.

Also, my entire childhood (and adulthood thus far) I have never seen you leave the house without looking perfectly made up and beautiful. To people like me, who toss up whether or not they can get away with leaving the house without brushing their hair, this is a very admirable quality. As a child I remember looking up at you and you always looking so polished and smelt so lovely and all my friends thought you were beautiful. When they said that I used to scrunch up my nose and go 'whatever', but I was secretly proud.

Aaaand, you are a good listener and you are very smart.

And I did actually find you a quote by Washington Irving, which sums up the way that I feel about you:

"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of all prosperity, when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavour by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts."

I love you and you love me and I know that there is nothing and no-one who can ever change that. The comfort that gives me, makes every day ok, no matter what happens.
Happy Mothers Day everyone.