Mother's Day: a day of anticipation; a day of celebration; a day of dread; a day of joy; a day of dread; and a day of so many mixed emotions. Mother's Day was this past weekend, and it has changed. It was often a time of trying to figure out between siblings what to get Mom without duplicating gifts; however, this year she is not here to fuss over. So in memory of her, we went wild over flowers to plant.
Mom loved working in the yard, and she loved gardening, in particular, she loved her flowers. It used to be a traditional practice for mothers to receive a garden flower in church for the holiday, and I that was always something she eagerly anticipated. That flower was sure to be planted within the next few days somewhere in the yard. They were almost always here favorite kind: geraniums. It seems that the last decade or so, people have lost interest in flowers, likely because they didn't want to fuss with taking care of them, and replaced them with treats or junk food. Not quite as fun for those of use who appreciated the flowers.
Since she loved flowers so much, we went to the nearby greenhouse to get some flowers. It was tempting to buy the whole lot of flowers, but we managed to keep from doing that. There were enough flowers as it was. There is a south facing flower bed at the house where most flowers grew well. We planted most of them there. So in honor of her memory, the flower bed is now loaded.
The first Mother's Day without a mom was a little bit of a roller coaster. I was handling it fine, but my sister got emotional over a text on our sibling group chat. It was right in the middle of church, so my sister had to tuck herself away in a corner away from others. We were standing next to a family bathroom, so I suggested she go in there to work it out of her system. Seeing her so emotional started bringing it out in me, so while she was dealing with it in the bathroom, I was having to deal with it outside waiting for her. There were other times, but I think that was the worst of it.
Life certainly takes us on many roller coaster rides, but that's what makes it interesting. I'm not a super fan of those rides, but in life sometimes we have to ride even if it's the one thing we want to avoid. Some of them are thrilling, and some of them terrifying, but we must ride. That's how life runs, and I'm grateful: grateful to have the memories of laughter; grateful for those times when a mid-night wake-up call sent me down to help and make me tired the next day; grateful for the hugs and head leanings; grateful for the times of sitting together enjoying each other's company; and grateful for all sorts of other memories. It's certainly a time of challenge, but it's also a time for remembering how beautiful life can be.
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| Tried planting this Begonia in our flower bed, but it showed signs of stress. I thought the sun might have been too strong for it, so I took it inside, hoping it would last longer there. |
