Perspective

Have you called your mother lately and told her you love her?  If not, you should.

Over the weekend a woman my age whom I used to work with, lost her mother to cancer. This sad event really shook my core.  I'm getting older, my mother is getting older, and I should cherish every day I have her with me.

Since I've been pregnant, mom has called me every morning, lunch, and evening to check how me and baby are feeling.  Some may say we have a obsessive-compulsive relationship where we need to chat all the time.  But I think it's healthy.  My mom is my only mom.  I live an hour from her and it makes me feel whole talking to her every day.  Not one day will go by without me talking to her.  And if at nine or ten at night, I can't remember if I had talked to her, I call her right up and make sure we chat for a few minutes.

My friend had emailed a few people last week to let us know her mother didn't have much time left.  I immediately called my mom and told her I loved her; a ritual I'm going to do more often now.

But not only that, a death I'm aware of really puts your life into perspective.  The morning this friend's mother died, I was tossing and turning unable to sleep in bed.  I was so frustrated because I was so tired and Jared was snoring making it even more impossible to sleep.  I was feeling sorry for myself and as soon as I woke up, I yelled at Jared for keeping me up with the snoring.  I was cranky, irritable, and felt the whole world on my shoulders due to pure exhaustion.  Little did I know that there was a woman out there my age watching her mother die.  If you really think about it though, every minute of every day someone is dealing with incredible pain; they have no food to eat, they have witnessed a murder, they are in the middle of warfare, or they are watching their children suffer.  It is happening all the time.

When I think of these sad things I'm not aware of, I feel guilty because to some of those people my life seems like a walk in the park.  Yes maybe I have some health problems - but they are not going to ruin my life (at least I hope not).  Yes maybe we struggle in our marriage sometimes - but who doesn't, marriage is hard.  Yes maybe we have family issues, money issues, or emotional issues, but that make us stronger.  I just need to be grateful that I am alive, I have a wonderful husband, we are growing a child together, and I have a family I can count on.

So when I hear about moms dying, it makes me want to hold on tight to mine and always remind her how much I love and appreciate her.  It also reminds me to not gripe over the little things in life because someone out there is far worse off than me.