How many times have you searched for traces of your mother’s features in your olive-shaped eyes, your smile, skin texture, dimples? Occasionally you’ll catch the resemblance immediately: “I can’t believe I look just like Mom!”
For others, no physical identification surfaces for years or decades, if ever. Even in photographs from long ago, it’s often impossible to discern a connection — which in no way suggests you were adopted.
You are the spitting image of your sisters, just not your mother. It wasn’t in the genetic cards. But don’t stop there.
Look beyond the mirror and shine the light on personality, temperament, affinities, quirks — the essence of your mother. Maybe it’s the way you hold your coffee with two hands and extend those baby fingers. Or the inability to tell a joke or laugh explosively when you hear one. Perhaps it’s a subtle sadness that rushes in and out like the tide; or a quiet, unerring judgment of people; or a love of the beach or of books. That’s where you’ll find Mom.
Mother’s Day, which is this Sunday, May 12, is not about the physical. It celebrates the spirit that binds time and eternity.
So whether you are a teenager or a mother raising a sizable brood or in your 60s or older, stop to honor the woman who ushered you into this baffling world.
You might not look like her, and she won’t have all the answers. If you’re fortunate, she loves — or loved — you, unconditionally. Give this love to yourself, your children and your best friends, and all your days will be happier.
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
