It's Mother's Day and I have had words for this day stirring in my heart and soul to share all week and have just now found the time to sit down and pour them out. It's not midnight yet, so I'm calling it a victory!
I always seem to open my blog posts with: " It's been soo long..." followed by promises that I will try and get better about posting more often because I truly desire to do so but I won't do that this time . I will say this, I am a mom of two busy bodies and a woman who loves to blog but I run a home, businesses and a ministry...All of which I think deserve more of my time. So I will just say that everyday I Seek God's guidance for every role I hold and I pray that I only get better with each passing day on my life Journey.
Now on to the words that are stirring up inside me. Every time I blog I just let my soul pour from my finger tips. I have no rhyme or reason to what or how I'm executing my thoughts and feelings. That's the best way for me and the entire reason I started this blog . It's therapeutic for me. I only hope that you as a reader can feel them and not only read them.
These words kept coming to me a couple of months ago so I jotted them down and didn't give it much thought but last week they returned and I had to sit and meditate on them ....
I am my mother's daughter.
What? Is that what your thinking? I know that's what I was thinking ... Of course I am my mother's daughter . Why do these words keep returning to me over and over ,I asked myself. I think they are quoted in one of my favorite movies in an essay one of the characters writes about her mother but I asked myself what do those words mean to me?
As I meditated on those words I found myself with a strong sense to share a separate set of words with not only my children but with everyone: Do not be ashamed of where you come from. Today's society is filled with trying to impress each other so much that we often feel ashamed to let the world know who we really are and where we come from. I for one want my children to know that they come from a line of hardworking women. Women who have planted the seeds that bear the fruit for them to be who they are. They have to know they have roots. Without roots there is no life.
SO now I have these two thoughts: I am my mother's daughter and Do not be ashamed of where you come from. Where do I come from? Who am I?
I am Maria's Daughter. Maria who left her country, her home and her family to seek out more. She wanted more for her family and she wanted more for herself. Maria who sacrificed her self to better the future of not only her family but her future children. Maria who waited tables and cleaned houses to make a living. Maria who worked so hard to send money back to her parents who she loves dearly. Maria who made the sacrifice of allowing me to live with my father and my grandparents because it was better for me. I know that a sacrifice like that is painful for a mother but it shows the true love only a mother knows. Unselfish love. To share the mother role and ultimately give the mother role to my grandmother Benancia.
I am Benancia's granddaughter . A woman who welcomed her granddaughter in to her home with the greatest love I've ever known. Benancia who too cleaned houses for a living to provide for her family. Benancia who I remember saying " We may not have had a lot of money but I made sure my family was always fed, clothed and presentable." Benancia who made sure that I knew Christ . The woman who made sure that I knew I was important. Benancia the woman that taught me how to make a bed properly and wash dishes by hand, the way I still do. The woman who instilled in me so much of who she is, including her stubbornness. Benancia who would say with such pride when introducing me to others " Yo la crie " ( I raised her) .
This is who I am . They are who I am. I come from the roots of two of the strongest women I have ever seen in my life. Women that I can only hope to reflect. I am not ashamed of their journey, in fact I am very proud of it. I want my children to know those deep roots. I want them to know where they come from and that it's taken a lot sacrifice and love to get here . After all, you can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been.
I am strong .I am bold. I am loving.
I am Maria's daughter. I am Benancia's granddaughter.
Isaiah 66:13.
