May Flowers (and the best gift I ever gave myself)

 Photo 52, Week 19:  May Flowers

  

We planted those pansies that stood the test of snow.

They are lovely and resilient.

And then I went to the greenhouse to look at the flowers
that might do better if I wait a couple more weeks.
After that I walked around a little lake with all the happy people,
loving the warmth as you will see.

But the irises reminded me of a treasured gift I once gave.

The gift of honor, expressed in presence.

The year Ben was born, I was trying to decide what to give my mom for Christmas.

I gave her a coupon.

The coupon entitled her to some number of lunches with Ben and me.
She would go home for lunch from work each day because she lived so close,
so I told her we would come and see her and bring her lunch.
It was a little trek for us, but to see her and my baby enjoying each other would be worth it.

Although I had gone through phases of my adult life where paying attention to my mom wasn't my highest priority, I had learned that it was a joy to be able to honor her.  There were certainly things I did (living overseas for four years for example) that I knew didn't exactly please her--but pleasing your parents is a bad goal.  Honoring them, on the other hand, is a great goal, and something I had learned to pray and ask God to enable me to do.  Bringing her grandson to see her was the perfect way to honor her.

As you might have imagined by now,
God knew when I gave her that gift what I never could have known.
She really had very little time left with us.
The gift turned out to be for me.

Thankfully I had gotten off to a good start,
because just after we went over to see her one day in February,
she left on vacation.

She never came back.

She had a wonderful vacation,

and she died happy.

Very happy.

And honored.

My last  memory of my mom
is of her and my tiny son giggling at each other.

I thought about that again this past week
when my cousins buried their mom and grandma,
my great aunt.



They are an amazing family,
and she was SO very close to her grandchildren.
And oh, did they ever honor her.

I am thrilled about that for them
because even as they grieve,
their hearts are at such peace.

Today, I hope you have the gift 

of spending Mother's Day

with your mom.

If you do, I hope you know

that honor

is always the perfect gift.