My belated Mother's Day story

Well, after 3 weeks without a computer i can finally relay the story of the gifts my children gave me for Mother's Day, this was the best year ever. It all began on Friday, 2 days before Mother's Day... Isabel had a friend come home from school with her, on the ride home the girls told me this:

Amarina -Elizabeth, you know what? The boys on the bus said I was ugly and Isabel is beautiful.
Me- Well, those aren't very nice boys.
Isabel- And, mommy, you know what I told them?
Me- What did you tell them Isabel?
Isabel- I said, Amarina is my friend and she is just as beautiful as me!
Me- Isabel, you're right, Amarina is as beautiful as you.

Not only did Isabel speak for a larger sense of what is beautiful, she said it all in her second language, Spanish. My heart was glowing almost as brightly as Isabel's rosy cheeks. My daughter stood up for the underdog, she came to her dear friends defense and said what was right and good. Isabel was given a tool, compassion, from her mama and she used that tool, against "those mean boys" and given her friend a gift, unconditional love. I still tear up thinking about the inner strength of my 5 year old baby girl. Isabel, you are a light for my heart in the darkness.

Move to Sunday, Mother's Day. Our day started out at 7 am, unheard of for Sunday! Richard was in the states and I packed up my 3 kids and 2 dishes to share for the Danza de Listonne at Los Charcos, arrival time 8:30 am. This danza, or dance is celebrated by Waldorf schools to mark the bringing of light as midway between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice. The point where light and warmth are bringing the earth to life in a splash of green, I like to think of
it as an appreciation of verdance, that may even be my own word for green spring deliciousness,
I'm not sure.

So, on Mothers Day, I watched Sebastian, my oldest, my gift from God on Christmas day 2000, dance the light into being. Gracias a Dios, what beauty, what tears I shed while the flute played and the ribbons wrapped around the pole in an intricate dance. I cannot describe the gratefulness in my heart for everything in my life, the good, the not so good, the really sucky bad things, it was all sumptuous and beautiful and right at that moment. Yet another gift from my first born!

And then I watched Sebastian demonstrate eurythmy. For those of you that know me well, you've heard my skepticism about eurythmy, which is the natural movement of the body associated with sounds in the beginning, which is where Sebastian is, the beginning of a journey into the crazy, wonderful world of Waldorf education. Well, I am a skeptic no more. Sebastian showed me, along with his classmates, how lovely it is to have movement in conjunction with others. It was not precise but it was deliberate, I was so amazed at how his feet moved in unison with his classmates, how delicate their steps were but so sure of themselves. Of where they were going but happy to ease into syncopation not be hurried and force themselves to march. The word Flow comes to mind and what better word because children are by nature fluid beings, adaptable. At this point, I was on sensory overload and out of tears of joy, I smiled like I had not smiled in years. My heart was content.

Roarke in his infinite amount of energy was the last to give his gift, a 2 hour nap! Maybe this means little to my readers, for me, a nap is salvation. After a nap, I can continue, I can be a better mama. Especially when parenting alone to 3 small people, my small people wear me out.

For all these gifts I must rely on a songwriter that touches my heart:
"I stand in awe of gratefulness
I can and call forgetfulness..."
Sufjan Steven

I will remember these moments when my children transgress, I will call on these moments and open them like a gift again and again. Like right now when no one wants to go to sleep, 45 minutes past their bedtime.