Happy Birthday Mom!

Today would have been my mother's 87th birthday.  She's been gone for almost 10 years and sometimes it seems like a long time, others like yesterday.  Given today is her birthday, I'd like to honor her memory by talking about one of her gifts.  

One of the most memorable things about her was her ability to make you feel comfortable, seen, and heard.  She would ask how someone was in line at the grocery store and get their life's story by the time it was ready for one of you to check out.  

She had this ability to immediately make you feel comfortable.  One of my favorite stories illustrating this happened while she was trying to clean the house out to create a space for my brother.  She was shopping at Meijer, ran into a man with his daughter who had a waffle iron in their cart.  She at a waffle iron in the storage area she was clearing out.  She told the man if he followed her to the house, he could get it for free.  

He reluctantly followed her to the house a little crazy on both sides (Who is this woman offering me a waffle iron and who was this man coming to get it), but she had a feeling about people.    He followed her and got the waffle iron.  She got rid of an item that needed to go.  

Thank you mom, for reminding me to take time and get to know people.  Sometimes there's a beautiful benefit for both of you. 

As always, Your life is your practice.