Mother's Day

My mom is a character. I have never come across another human being that is quite like her. Of course, I hope to never cross paths with a pseudo-Gwen. That would be an interesting meeting, my friends.

I used to hate the fact that whenever there was contention among the young women in my ward (i.e. me vs them), my mother would HUMILIATE me by calling other mothers and chewing them out over us girls' discord. Ugh. It only took a few times until I learned to just keep my mouth shut.

My mom has this brand of... honesty? I think that's what you might call it. She used to just say her opinions and tell you exactly what she thought of this or that, regardless of how outlandish it was. I thought that this was a terrible thing and again, I cringed at the thought of her telling people what she really thought about things.

This one time, right when our Temple was being built, a person in the neighborhood called it a barn or something that was insulting. She got in that lady's face (she was standing in her doorway) and was defending it, shouting at her, in front of all the neighbors. The lady tried to slam her door in my mom's face, but my mom stuck her foot in the door so she couldn't close it until she was through giving the lady a piece of her mind. Us kids were terrified and all the neighbors were hanging out in their respective yards watching the showdown.

The thing of it is, I used to hate all these things about my mom. But as I've grown older and my kids have started to grow up, I find I can identify with a lot of the things that she did. I find myself imitating her Mother Bear ways and wanting to fight my kids' fights. I find myself thinking that it IS better to tell people what you really think, especially on important matters.
I've discovered that regardless of all of my mother's shortcomings and traits that I feel are lacking, there is a beauty in her, unique in her own way. The beauty is, she is a mother. MY mother. I love her, in spite of us not always seeing eye to eye. I love her because of all the things I see wrong with her, there is a lot of right things. There is something sacred about mothers and motherhood. I honor her. And I honor all of you mothers out there. I hope you all had a happy Mother's Day.