mothers

Oscar Wilde suggested that it was inevitable that daughters become like their mothers.    I was thinking today - as I was coming back from taking Samuel to work for the second time (he'd been taken by Linda, our lodger, first but hadn't got his keys.  He phoned, we searched, I drove to collect him.  After 5 or 10 mins he found the keys and I set off again, to take him to work....) that I've learnt a lot of very handy sayings from my mum.  These handy sayings, to some extent, have shaped me.  

As Samuel was (again!) apologising I declared 'such is life'.   My old self would have been resentful at having been 'dragged' out of a cosy bedroom leaving a freshly-brewed cup of rooibosch to go cold (I reheated it later but somehow it went cold again before I drank it...) but here I was being thankful for the opportunity to be of use to dear Samuel.  It was about 4 degrees below 0 out side.  My hands were so cold (I forgot my gloves) that I was caused to remember my army days - we actually had to go out on parade on mornings like this.  There was a girl from Manchester who was in the band a year or so before me who had actually gone out on parade with her pyjamas under her uniform.  As she was marching along (we were told) one of her pyjama trouser legs gradually slid down in full view of everyone - including inspecting officers!   We six new-recruits in April 1979 agreed that an investment in Damart thermal underwear was a much safer way of staying warm on parade!    

'Worse things happen at sea' (though I always wondered on what basis my mother - who I believe never WENT to sea - could state that!) and 'There but for the grace of God go I' - normally trotted out when someone was discovered to have 'disgraced' themselves in some way or other.   I have often looked with great sadness at 'bag ladies' in London and thought how easily I could have ended up like that - only the Lord knows.

Of course my most frequent quote of my mother is 'there's nowt so queer as folk' - and that one has spread to some of my children too!   The longer I live, the more I find that to be true (it ought to have been in the book of proverbs somewhere!!!).

If one has a bad mother must one inevitably, inescapably, be bad oneself?  Praise God that ones own badness need not necessarily be passed on to ones daughters!   I'm praising God that my daughters are fewer than my sons too!

And as I grow in the Lord I praise God for His Grace making me not merely resigned to how things are (kind of 'grinning and bearing it' like a stoic) but actually thankful for the unexpected and unpleasant features of life - though I'm not sure I'll ever embrace the 'queerness' of 'folk' quite like Jesus did - perhaps if I live to be 100.......

Now thank we all our God,  with hearts and hands and voices,
Who wonderous things hath done, in whom this world rejoices,
Who from our mothers arms, has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

Thanks Mum.