My Mom's Story: Part VII - Extraordinary Women

What does it mean to live an extraordinary life? I highly doubt that my mother thinks that she is leading an extraordinary life - some of you reading may agree with her too. After all, you’ve read about how she had a regular childhood with regular childhood trials, met her husband and married him, had two children to make a perfect nuclear family, was a stay-at-home mom who later went back to work, and that she raised me - as you would expect a good mother to do. You probably think that it’s nice that I’ve chosen to write about my appreciation for my mom, that she sounds like a pretty awesome person, but that nothing she’s done is much different from what your own mother has done, or what you have done, or what your wife has done, or your best friend or your aunt or sister.

I hope you did think that at some point. Because you are right.

My mom has done in her life what many, many women do. But I want you to think about the attitude that these life circumstances were undertaken with. What makes my mom’s story extraordinary to me is how she has viewed her life, respected it and faced every day with determination and a positive attitude. How kindly she treats everyone, how much she loves my dad just the way he is, and how she supports my brother and I unfailingly. I truly do hope you can relate to this and I think you can. I scan facebook on a regular basis just like every other young adult caught in the social networking snare and I know that I have friends who can relate to my mother and that they too are facing their lives with extraordinary attitudes that in turn enrich the lives of those close to them.

I know I have friends and family who were teased in school, so much so that it is burned into their memories. Yet they still have learned to love themselves and trust others.

I know women who are living real-life love stories - high school sweethearts that are finally getting married, women who were making plans to travel and were not even thinking about a relationship when their love story hit them, couples that entered marriage based on fondness, faith and trust in God, women who spent years alone before finding someone to spend their life with.

I have a lot of friends who profess their love for their children practically every other day on facebook. Some of these friends were not expecting these additions to their lives and some have waited for a very long time to welcome them but all would give anything just to keep their daughters and sons safe and happy.

And how many of you have made sacrifices for careers or for your husbands? I have friends whose husbands had to work as medics up north for months at a time, or who were on 48 hour shift schedules at stations far removed from home, meaning they only saw each other a few days out of the week. I have a friend who married the man she loved but had to move to the U.S, leaving her entire family to be with him. I have friends with wonderful careers but who know and accept that they may have to change or alter these careers when they are eventually transferred with their RCMP husbands.

What about the courage it takes to re-enter the workforce when you’ve been away from it for years? I know nurses, teachers, paramedics, police and administrators who have all picked up the books again in preparation to return to the careers they put on hold and even more women who are starting from scratch with resumes, job training and interviews in the hopes of further developing themselves and their finances.

So you see, chances are that your life is extraordinary - you just don’t know it, probably because no one has told you yet. You can be sure though, that those women I mentioned above - I think you guys are extraordinary and I’m so blessed to have you as friends - and for inspiration!

Sure, these are all life events that many people undergo in their lives. But not all people do it well. Not all people get through tough times, not everyone stays committed to their marriage. Some people leave their children or worse, abuse them. Some people’s habits keep them from performing in the workforce, some people never seek to improve themselves or their life circumstances. These are not judgements, they’re facts.

We are born to be women, but we choose what kind of women we want to be. My mom chooses how to handle life circumstances, she chooses what kind of wife she wants to be, she chose how to raise my brother and I and she chose how she wanted to further develop herself and her career. This is especially extraordinary to me because these choices have influenced my own life - and it’s a wonderful life because of my Mom.

So, yes, maybe today you don’t think your life is extraordinary. Maybe you have regrets, maybe the kids are being brats today, maybe your marriage has seen better times or maybe you have no idea what you want to do with your life. When I have doubts, my mom says something along the lines of “hang in there, continue to make the best decisions you can and I love you.”

I figure she knows what she’s talking about.

Happy 50th Birthday Mom.