It Mother Day Again

Happy Mother's Day to all those past and present who have borne the task of caring, loving, toiling and yearning for their children. It's obviously a complicated task being someone's mom! She does the sacrificing and laboring so all we see are the adventure and excitement of our youth.

They do their work quietly... with little regard for recognition. They are the silent saints who bridge the gap between the ignorance of youth and the hubris of our adolescence.

A week or two ago I found some old videos of me and Angie Stewart Callahan and Darren Callahan playing and singing while on one of our regular visits to see my mom and dad. My mom was holding the camera while Lisa Popchoke Callahan and my dad sat and help to create the background scene of one of those beautiful moments often forgotten in the days that would come, but previously remembered when recalled.

But there she sat... holding her camera... ushering and directing her kids to share their gifts and to reward her with the joy of watching. And she did. And she encouraged us.  And she praised us. She was our greatest fan. I will always believe she was mine.

And I miss her.  As much now as then. I miss here.

I wrote her a mothers's day song a year after I lost her that starts out, "Hello mama, it's mother's day again!" I have yet to do anything with it other than sit down at the piano or grab a guitar once or twice a year and just play it... for her. Who knows, maybe one day I will share it.

One of my favorite lines from the song though, does merit sharing...

"As each one takes her rose, and is honored for her grace, I pray their children see a love time can't erase..."

As I watched the old video, I could hear her voice! Eleven years have left it sounding different to me. I could sense her nuances as she engaged us through the film and the years but it felt distant to me somehow all these years removed.  But her love didn't change. It reached out to me through the celluloid and the time. I still feel it from the distant expanse of from there to here. She loved me and I so loved her!

"Hello mama, it's mothers day again..."