WILL AND TANYA'S HOME |
 |
MOTHERS
The young mother set her foot on the path of life.
"Is this the long
way?"
she asked, and the guide said.
"Yes, and the way is hard, and you will
be
old
before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the
beginning."
But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that
anything
could be better than these years.
So she played with her children,
and
gathered flowers for them along the way,
and bathed them in the clear
streams,
and the sun shone on them,
and the young Mother cried,
"Nothing
will ever be lovelier than this."
Then the night came, and the storm,
and the path was dark, and the
children
shook with fear and cold,
and the mother drew them close and covered
them
with her mantle,
and the children said,
"Mother, we are not afraid,
for
you
are near, and no harm can come."
And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead,
and the children
climbed
and grew weary,
and the mother was weary.
But at all times she said
to
the
children,
"A little patience and we are there."
So the children
climbed,
and when they reached the top they said,
"Mother, we would not have
done
it
without you."
And the mother,
when she lay down at night looked up at the stars and
said,
"This is a better day than the last,
for my children have learned
fortitude
in the face of hardness.
Yesterday I gave them courage.
Today I have
given
them strength."
And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth,
clouds
of
war and hate and evil,
and the children groped and stumbled,
and the
mother
said,
"Look up. Lift your eyes to the light. "
And the children
looked
and
saw
above the clouds an everlasting glory,
and it guided them beyond
the
darkness.
And that night the Mother said,
"This is the best day of
all,
for
I have shown my children God."
And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years,
and
the
mother grew old and she was little and bent.
But her children were
tall
and strong, and walked with courage.
And when the way was rough, they
lifted her,
for she was as light as a feather;
and at last they came
to
a
hill,
and beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung
wide.
And mother said: "I have reached the end of my journey.
And now I
know
the
end is better than the beginning,
for my children can walk alone, and
their
children after them."
And the children said,
"You will always walk with us, Mother,
even
when
you
have gone through the gates."
And they stood and watched her as she
went
on
alone,
and the gates closed after her.
And they said,
"We cannot see
her,
but she is with us still.
A Mother like ours is more than a memory.
She
is
a living presence."
Your Mother is always with you.
She's the whisper of the leaves
as
you
walk
down the street,
she's the smell of bleach in your freshly laundered
socks,
she's the cool hand on your brow when you're not well.
Your
Mother
lives inside your laughter
and she's crystallized in every teardrop.
She's
the place you came from,
your first home,
and she's the map you follow
with
every step you take.
She's your first love and your first heartbreak,
and
nothing on earth can separate you.
Not time...not space...not even
death.