My Mom

One day when I was about ten years old my mom was taking me and my sister to school. She was talking to me about some homework assignment that I found challenging and the conversation went something like this.

Me: I can’t do it.

Mom: What did I tell you about using that word “can’t”?

Me: But I CAN’T!

Mom: *the momma glare*

Me: BUT I CAN’T!

Mom pulls the car over and looks at me with the “momma glare” on a hundred thousand trillion.

Mom: So do we need to go back home? (whoopin threat!)

Me: ok… I can…

My mom is a Baaaaad woman.

There were very few things we’d get a spanking about: blatant disobedience, lying, and apparently insisting that we couldn’t do something.

(for the record I think she was just bluffing but if you saw that glare you would have gotten in line just like I did.. TRUST.)

She refused to allow “can’t” to be in our vocabulary and soon I would see her put her actions where her mouth was.

When I was in Jr. High the company that my mom and step-dad worked for moved from California to Tuscon Arizona.

Ewwww…

They were offered positions to relocate but decided not to. My step dad got an early retirement and began writing. My mom decided to do something that she always wanted to do.

She went back to school to get her doctorate in psychology.

So from the time I was in seventh grade all the way through high school my mom, my older sister, and I were all in school. The company helped pay for her Masters in Psychology (one of the multitude of masters degrees she has) but she had to take out loans for the final leg.

But when it came time for me to graduate high school and my sister to finish up at Stanford there was our mother, graduating with us from her doctoral program. One weekend after another in June of that year we all achieved something big.

It was a special time.

I talk a lot on here about the importance of pursuing dreams. I believe that the life affirming desires that we have in our heart are placed there by God; and consequently, we have the tools necessary to achieve them. All we have to do is believe and align our actions with that faith.

My mom is a big inspiration behind this belief.

She went back to school when she had two kids who were 12 and 16 years old; two kids who played more sports and had more activities than made any kind of sense. She accepted the financial challenge of losing the nice chunk of change that she was making… all in pursuit of her dream.

She taught me that it is never foolish to dream and never too late to go for those dreams.

Thank you Mom! You continue to be an inspiration to me.

Happy Mother’s Day!