A Soulful Journey

The unborn child is told, “You must realize that God is pure, His servants are pure, and the soul that He gave you is pure. If you keep it pure, all is good and well but if you defile your soul, it will be taken from you.  Three partners partook in your creation, God, your father and your mother. Your father and your mother provided you with a body. But it was still dead, it could neither speak, walk, nor hear. Then God provided it with a divine soul, giving your face expression, and providing you with the power to see, hear, speak and move. He also gave you wisdom and understanding." -Me’am Loez    

Slender deer run over the snowy mountains and their silvery horns prick the moon, but the moon pours goodness over them. My mother keeps them; she follows them carefully and for the wood’s wolves not to send them she erases their tracks on the snow. My mother died years ago but with her arms stretched out in the wind she keeps on walking her love through the space. She cradles the uneasiness of the paths; takes away the evil-eye from the little hares and calls the least worm my child. Neither in her grave if she left alone by her love. Here is that she opens her prayer book at the stars and prays, prays, so God may hear her. In my sleep her crying shines. – Itzik Manger   Never forget the love and lessons you have been taught.  And be selective.  Choose to recall what is most meaningful.

The growing dismay Of a wearying day No more for her. Through ancient release In softest peace Without a stir She Stays. She stays! I count the ways She's lost to me. Then turn my head And cry instead Too quietly. -Sada Applebaum

Be comforted you all, friends. Only a fool thinks he has for every time the adequate words. But I want to remind you: a mother also needs to rest some day. Let her have it grant her a rest, my beloved ones. rise and with a silent smile sweep away the sorrow from your house.  - Malke Jeifetz-Tuzman Death is the ultimate silence.  And yet it is also the ultimate rest from a life of giving.

A man, after visiting an elderly woman in the hospital, called the doctor aside and asked, "Doctor, is the case critical or is there still hope?" "That depends," the doctor casually replied, "on whether she is your mother, or mother-in-law." Real love is not dependent on any thing.

"Since there was no sense in waiting for mama to take us to Coney Island, we usually went by ourselves, or, as mama said, "alone."  Anywhere you went without your mother was known as going "alone" even if there were 30 of you."  - Sam Levenson That is an expression of love.  When someone yearns to be with you (you know this because they call, visit, pray for you, and are constantly concerned about your welfare) you are never alone.

“A mother has to wear a large apron to cover the faults of her children.” –folk saying We work hard to educate, teach them how to have respect, and grow in morals as well as stature.  All the while, the protective parent puts the best face on the shortcomings of the child.   Sometimes, raising a child to be honest with their gifts and accept their deficits is the greatest gift we can give them.  Not everyone will be a rock star or football legend.  The main thing is to teach our children to find their love and excel at it.

"To survive  I had to kill her inside me."  -Frank Bidart We all have demons, voices from the past that speak to us, shame us and keep us from personal growth.  Those are usually people from our past.  Bidart writes of needing to still the voice inside him that stopped him from becoming who he was meant to be. Are there voices inside you that need to be silenced?

How many Jewish mothers are needed to change an electric lightbulb? Only one. "I will sit in the dark and cry." Guilt is good.  If it get us to do to the right thing.  Hopefully our conscious mind will speak before we need to be told.

Enrico Caruso said that his earliest childhood memory was that of his mother's beautiful voice.  His first sounds were full of music because that is what his ears heard.  - Bernard Raskas Allow you mind be filled with beautiful, fluid memories that make you smile.

"When a young man marries he divorces his mother." -unknown

If you have a smile for Mother, Give it now. If you have a kindly word, Speak it now. She'll not need it when the angels Greet her at the golden gate; Give the smiles while she is living. If you wait, 'twill be too late. If you pluck a flower for Mother, Pluck it now. Place it gently on her bosom, Print a kiss on her brow. What care she when life is over For the flowers that bloom below. She will have her share up yonder, Scattered at her fett galore.  - Akron Baptist Journal

In one of Bill Keane’s “Family Circus” comic cartoons, the yard is filled with children playing as only children can. They are yelling, screaming, blowing horns, and crying. The dog is barking, a jet flies overhead, and two boys are banging on a drum. Inside the house, the mother of one of the children says to her husband with alarm:  “Listen that’s PJ crying!” The mother’s ears were conditioned to hear the sound of a child’s voice, even above the din.

Some years ago, the lead coach of the University of Alabama, Bear Bryant, was asked to do a commercial for Southern Belle telephone. Coach Bryant's part in the commercial simple: he was to have only one line. At the conclusion of the text of the commercial, Bryant was supposed to say, as though barking orders to his players, “Call your momma!”  At the filming of the commercial, something unexpected happened. As Coach Bryant turned towards the camera, tears welled up in his eyes as he said, “Call your mama. I sure wish I could call mine.” The telephone company aired the commercial as found. The impact was overwhelming.  Television stations were flooded with calls by those who had been touched by the sensitivity and tenderness of Coach Bryant. Many were prompted to call their own mothers or another relative or friend that they had meaning to contact but never did. Do not wait until the moment has passed  for then it may be too late.

Elie Wiesel told of a woman who lived in the Carpathian Mountains during the time of Hitler. She had heard that people in Warsaw rebelling and fighting back. She exclaimed, “They should be quiet not protest. The war will end and everything will be all right.” At this point in his address, Elie Wiesel turned to President Clinton who was sitting on the dais and said, “I have recently visited Bosnia and cannot sleep at night. Why don’t we intervene?  There are those in America today who say we should do nothing about this was the slaughter, just as the woman in the Carpathian Mountains counseled inaction in the face of the Nazis.”  And then Elie Wiesel resumed his story: “This woman never knew that the war against Hitler had come to an end, for she perished with her entire family in Auschwitz.” He paused for a moment and concluded, “That woman which my mother!”

Three sons of a Yiddishe Mama left their homeland, went abroad and prospered.   They discussed the gifts they were able to give their old mother. Avraham, the first son, said: "I built a big house for our mother." Moishe, the second son, said: "I sent her a Mercedes with a driver." David, the youngest son, said: "You remember how our mother enjoys reading the  bible. Now she can't see very well. I sent her a remarkable parrot that  recites the whole bible,... took the greatest rabbis 12 years to teach him -- Mama just has to name the chapter and verse and the parrot recites it." Soon thereafter, a letter of thanks came from their mother. "Avraham," she said, "The house you built is so huge.  I live only in one room, but I have to clean the whole house!" "Moishe," she said, I am too old to travel. I stay most of the time at home so  I rarely use the Mercedes. And that driver has shpilkas...

Thomas Edison was dyslexic, which would have made it difficult for him to succeed in an 1800s classroom.  Research on dyslexia  didn’t begin until the early 1900s, decades after Edison had left public schools, so little was known about it at the time. Thomas Edison’s struggles in school have been well documented over the years, as have his teacher’s view that Edison was “addled.” But the idea that Thomas Edison didn’t know that he’d been called addled is false. The Foundation for Economic Education  reports  that Edison was well aware of his teacher’s diagnosis, and that he was enraged by it: In 1854, Reverend G. B. Engle belittled one of his students, seven-year-old Thomas Alva Edison, as “addled.” This outraged the youngster, and he stormed out of the Port Huron, Michigan school, the first formal school he had ever attended. His mother, Nancy Edison, brought him back the next day to discuss the situation with Reverend Engle...

Make us worthy, Lord To serve our fellow men Throughout the world who live and die In poverty and hunger Give them through our hands This day their daily bread, And by our understanding love Give peace and joy. -Mother Theresa of Calcutta

A Jewish woman took her neurotic son to a psychiatrist.  After examining him, he said to the mother, “Well, there’s nothing wrong with your Izzy except for a slightly overdeveloped Oedipus complex.” She said “Doctor, Oedipus, Schemidipus, what do I care as long as he loves his mommy!”

An older gentleman was on the operating table awaiting surgery and he insisted that his son, a renowned surgeon, perform the operation. As he was about to get the anesthesia, he asked to speak to his son. "Yes, Dad , what is it?" "Don't be nervous, son; do your best, and just remember, if it doesn't go well, if something happens to me, your mother is going to come and live with you and your wife...." Funny, isn't it?  Perhaps what makes it  must  funny is we know that caring for another human being, no strings  attached , is not easy but is our  responsibility .