I am in the basement of my childhood home. I am with my brother and sisters. One of them snatches a box from behind the bar.<\/p>\n
I sift through the box. It overflows with cards and notes. My thoughts drift back to the day that I grab my mom\u2019s birthday card from her bedroom dresser. Only to discover, \u00a0her own scribbled love message inside the card that we had gifted her….devoted to us…….her five children.<\/p>\n
It foreshadows this moment.<\/p>\n
I grab a small white address book that is resting between the cards.<\/p>\n
Inside the front cover I run my fingers over my mom\u2019s handwriting, \u201cColleen gave this to me one Christmas. I could never throw away.\u201d<\/p>\n
I have no memory for this little book. I must have been too small to remember.<\/p>\n
I flip through it.<\/p>\n
On the back cover I find two quotes:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the heart has once owned, it shall never lose.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cWhere there is love, there is no labor.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
My mom prepares these remembrances for us. This of course, I inadvertently discover the day I swipe her birthday card off of her dresser to read. The day has come that we all will need them.<\/p>\n
My husband sees love as work. In my confusion to decipher just why he sees love so toilsome, my marriage has become laborious, and thus divorce is eminent.<\/p>\n
I remember reading a parenting book by Dr. Stephen Covey. In one chapter, Covey\u2019s daughter speaks of the way her mother and father celebrate her birthday. It is a week long, grand celebration with each day bringing something special with it. All nine of the Covey children enjoy this loving deluge.<\/p>\n
Covey\u2019s daughter goes on to explain what a shock it is once she marries. It seems her husband does not share the same, week long enthusiasm for all things birthday.<\/p>\n
I do not know what drew me to someone who does not recognize the ease of love.<\/p>\n
For even in illness and death, our mom discovers a way to let her love travel towards us.<\/p>\n
She simply couldn’t find enough ways to tell us she loved us.<\/p>\n
I always say that loving people just isn\u2019t that complicated.<\/p>\n
A better way to say it………<\/p>\n
Would be in the verse that my mom lived in life……………<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere there is love, there is no labor.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am in the basement of my childhood home. I am with my brother and sisters. One of them snatches a box from behind the bar. I sift through the box. It overflows with cards and notes. My thoughts drift back to the day that I grab my mom\u2019s birthday card from her bedroom dresser.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[230,2,8,232,5,229,31,32,33,34],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorce-2","category-marriage","tag-catholic","tag-divorce","tag-faith","tag-inspiration","tag-love","tag-marriage","tag-mom","tag-mother","tag-novena","tag-sacred-heart"],"yoast_head":"\n