Post-Mother's Day thoughts

Intimately speaking...

Yesterday was as uneventful as any other day, not only for myself, but for my mom as well. I understand that people should appreciate others in their life because...well, it's just the thing to do. There have been, and will be, many times that I've expressed my gratitude towards those with whom I've shared my life these past 22 years; from the smallest interaction to the largest. However, days such as Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Christmas (in other words, all the social holidays) allow one the opportunity to materialize that gratitude in the form of personalized gifts, vacations and/or physical affection; sometimes the latter is multi-faceted. Basically what I'm trying to say is that that wasn't the case yesterday. For some time now I'll happen to hear my mom "speaking to herself" saying things such as, "I never get anything for my birthday, for Christmas, for Mother's day...nobody loves me," to which I'd respond, "HA!", to let her know that 1) I hear you lady and 2) it's true. Not the love part, but the 'not receiving any gifts' part, which is kind of a hard blow for a young black male, such as myself, who was single-handedly raised by this woman; especially when I feel that it's a child's duty to repay the investment made by one's parent(s). My emotional gratitude can only go so far as making her feel good for the time being, it isn't a momentary vacation from her daily living, it doesn't buy food, it doesn't pay bills, and it sure won't let me let her to stop working. So a small token of my appreciation by whatever means would at least let her know I'm well aware of the situation and care enough to do what I can. Unfortunately, that small token will have to wait until Wednesday, when I finally get paid. Then I'll be able to say, "Happy (Belated) Mother's Day" as I present her with...uh...I have no idea, but I hope she likes.


--- ygb