My sister, Cindy, and I each had chores that must be done on Saturday mornings before we could take our allowance and walk to the drug store on the highway.
Cindy was probably cleaning the bathrooms, and I was vacuuming and dusting. I was in a nasty mood. Something set me off, and I started to cry.
I don't often cry now so that may not be an easy thing for you to picture.
As I was vacuuming and crying and crying and vacuuming, my mother appeared in the den.
"What are you crying about?" she asked.
"You're the mother, you're supposed to know," I exclaimed.
Fast forward with me to 2018. That same mother is now 95 years old.
And sometimes things are just not right in her world.
A few weeks ago, it was that her apartment wasn't "homey", then it was her hair, then she needed some new blouses. So we took care of that.
Yet still it was if she was crying out to me - nothing seemed to make her feel better.
Until an afternoon when she was visiting me, and my neighbor stopped in for a visit.
The conversation thrilled her. It was about the Holy Spirit, one of my mother's favorite topics.
And I was grateful that even though I didn't plan the conversation, one of her needs had been met.
My mother really depends on me to know what to do when things are going awry. I'm the one who can call the doctor, talk to the nurse, take her to have her nails done, etc. etc. etc.
For so long, it was my mother encouraging me - always looking for a way to make me happy.
And now it's me who has the responsibility. I do realize. however, that try as I might, I cannot always make my mother happy. In reality, I had to find my own happiness, didn't I?
And so does my mother.
While, as her principle caregiver, I am responsible for her safety,, my mother has to find her own happiness. I'm pretty sure it comes when she allows the reality of the Holy Spirit in her life.
And now I've gone from preaching to meddling. That's okay - she's been guilty of that in my life more than once.
It's just one of those times when the tables are turned.
May your life be filled with enough sunshine
to make you appreciate the shadows
