Day 379 - Moms

I don't think you can ever truly appreciate your mother until you become one yourself.

Years ago my mom met me for breakfast when I was down in Los Angeles for work. As she was leaving she had a chance to meet a few of my co-workers.

When my mom left one co-worker said, " your mother will always love you more than you love her."

At the time I didn't have children, and was sort of taken aback, thinking, "of coarse I love my mom as much as she loves me."

Now that I have children of my own I know this to be impossible. I will always love them more than they love me, or at least until they have children of their own.

Every day I try to be the type of mother mine is. No nonsense, fair, fun. When I come home exhausted from a day of office work, I often wonder how my mom, a school teacher, did it all.

She was in charge of dinner, getting us to practice, getting homework done, driving us to games. She always made sure our uniforms were clean, that we had cleats, gloves, socks.

I don't remember her ever missing a game. I remember that she simply signed me up, paid the fee, and sat back and watched as I developed into a great athlete.

Not once did she pull a coach aside, tell me to work harder, or do anything other than support me for 17 years of non stop athletics.

At the ripe old age of 20, when I brought home a perfect stranger and told her we were getting married, she didn't flinch. In fact the only other time I saw a happier reaction was when we told her we were pregnant for the first time.

My mom has always been the glue that holds our family together. 

She was the center of our universe growing up. 

She held us together when we lost our father, and she lost the love of her life.

She held me and  my little tribe together, through head shaving, chemo, and surgery.

And while some may think I could never love my mom as much as she loves me.

I am not so sure.