Thank you Mama

It’s May. Springtime in the South. There are so many things that I love about spring. The seasons have changed, there is new growth all around us. It’s a time of renewal, a season of new growth. The trees are budding, putting on new leaves and the flowers are showing off all of their colors, displayed through their vibrant blooms. Spring always brings me great joy.

The fish are biting and so are the mosquitos. The turkeys are gobbling in the woods and putting on a display in an effort to attract the ladies. Nature is alive and growing daily. I spend so much time out in the woods or on the water in an effort to take in as much of God’s natural world as I possibly can.

As much as I enjoy all of these things in nature. There are still other things that captivate my full attention. There is also a special day, a very special one that comes around in May. Although it is a man-made holiday, if you will, it brings our attention and our focus to what I consider a very special subject. Mama. It’s Mother’s Day.

It’s a day that we stop and recognize our mothers for all they do for us. For all the mothers that have gone on to be with the Lord, it’s a day that we remember and honor them. It’s a day that we make an effort to spoil our mothers with love, attention and try to somehow repay them for all they have done for us in our lives.

It has always been a special day for me. I look forward to it because it gives us all an opportunity to express our gratitude, our thankfulness to the one who has given us so much. As time passes, my awareness, my level of thankfulness for my own mother, increases not only with each passing year, but with each passing day.

I have also found that there are others who deserve recognition in addition to our own biological mothers. I look back over my life and I realize that there were a multitude of women who mothered me as well. My grandmothers are certainly on the top of that list, but there were others also. I had aunts, neighbors as well as family friends who gave me the same kind of nurturing and love. I readily admit that I am spoiled. I’ve been spoiled rotten by a whole bunch of sweet ladies, in addition to my mama.

My mama raised me with love and a fair amount of peach tree switches. I most likely could have used a few more switches off that old peach tree. Sometimes a leather belt was involved. My mama taught me at a young age how to break off an appropriate “switch”. It was a combination of the right length and the right diameter. Try as I may, to substitute with one that was not as effective, my mama never allowed any exceptions. She also, always, assured me that those spankings hurt her more than they did me. I tried to explain to her that if she let me use that switch or that belt, I’d show her what hurt…I know those spankings were given out of love in order to make me a better person. I am indeed thankful that the rod was not spared.

I was always, still am for the most part, up to something. I loved to aggravate my mama. Or my grandmothers. Or whoever. Mama would do something for me and I would intentionally fail to give her thanks. She would calmly look at me and say “thank you mama” and I would reply “oh yeah, thank you mama”. It has been a joke between us for all of these years.

In recent history, I’ve had a health setback. I was in Texas on a hunting trip and suffered a stroke. I was in the hospital and a nursing home for rehabilitation for almost seven weeks. My mama was not there to see about me. She has since told me how hard it was for her to endure the fact that I was sick and so far away from home. Knowing that hurts my heart, but as soon as I was able, I called her three times a day. By the grace of God, she endured and I made it back home.

I have been staying with my mama ever since I got back home. She is nursing me back to health. Spoiling me some more. She cooks for me, washes my clothes and keeps clean sheets on my bed. I am truly thankful, but I continue to aggravate her on a daily basis, just to keep her on her toes.

I have long since said that I truly believe that God gives mothers special dispensation about their children. Special knowledge which is often referred to as a mother’s intuition. Throughout my life, my mama has told me many things about my life. She has told me of things that were to come. One thing that she told me over thirty years ago has come to pass in my life. I don’t mean just a casual statement, but she gave me very specific details about what was to come. It has happened right down to the tee. My mama has also told me from day one in the hospital that I was going to be fine. She has told me that I would heal and that I would go back to my life just as it was before. I’m watching her words unfold on a daily basis about my recovery. Mama knows.

A couple of weeks ago I had to enlist my mama to drive me to a doctor’s appointment. So there I was, a grown man needing his mama to drive him and she did. Of course I aggravated her the whole time. I have told her for years that I was going to trade her in, but they wouldn’t give me anything on trade, so I had to keep her. That’s always been a joke though, I wouldn’t trade her for anything.

Oftentimes, what we may view as an awful event, always has meaning. These last three months have been hard for her, but if things had not happened the way they did, we would not have been given this time together. The time we have shared recently has been very special for us both. I am beyond thankful for mama, she should have pinched my head long ago, but I’m sure glad she didn’t.

That afternoon when we got back home from the doctor’s appointment, she parked her car and looked right at me and said “thank you Mama”…..