Gratitude Challenge -- Day 13

1.  Memories of Mother.  In a week, Mother will have been gone 2 1/2 years.  To be without the woman who was such a significant part of my life has an unbelievable impact.  It is a profound loss.  Such trivial things bring on the memories--red dish towels, seasonally decorated socks, flower-garden patterned quilts.  Within the sadness comes a little smile as I wonder--What memories will my daughters hold onto when I'm gone?

When a daughter loses a mother, the intervals between grief responses 

 lengthen over time, but her longing never disappears. 

 It always hovers at the edge of her awareness, 

prepared to surface at any time, in any place, in the least expected ways. 

                                                                                                         -- Hope Edelman

2.  Heroes.  I'm not talking about the Spiderman or John Wayne types.  I mean the ones that pop up in our lives when least expected--the store clerks genuinely interested in helping us; the Child Welfare case manager who provides a loving home environment to a child while parents get the resources they need; the friend who sticks by you when life is handing you more than you can deal with alone;  an unexpected invitation to a movie.  Heroes in my life are people who go beyond themselves and enrich others.

Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with. 

                                         ― Brodi Ashton