Basekamp Laundry Mountain

This month, I am going to try & blog every day. Thanks, Blogher, for your motivation & blog forum!

My Mother has the softest & most beautiful brown eyes. Looking into those eyes, you can view the depth of her heart & the wear of the work she has done in this world. She is the soft to my Dad’s coarse, the laughter to the austere, the leisure to the wide tie & the trail ride to the nightly news. She taught us about organic gardening, horseback riding, and self-respect. One of the more valued lessons learned from her: respect of each & every human life.

When I was a kid, my Mom taught us to respect others by example. She worked as a home-health aide for a while and some of her clients taught us all a great deal about the value of any life. One couple she visited were 80-year-olds with diabetes. The wife was a sweet woman who was all of 4.5 feet tall. Sophie & her husband of a lifetime lived in an antique home that needed small repairs, as well as a bit of a scrub down. When the woman’s husband went into the hospital for a procedure, my Mom packed us into the car & brought us to the house to help out with what we could. Weeds pulled, windows washed & floors clean, the house shone at its best when she welcomed her husband back home to recuperate. How rewarding it was to help another prepare for the final home-coming of her high school sweetheart!

Another woman who she visited lived with her adult son with disabilities. He had CP, was blind & hard of hearing. I remember going with Mom on a visit and playing music & singing with him, while he smiled and enjoyed the company. To my mom & to us, he was just like any other son of a friend of hers. We talked to & with him- never at or about him. When we would visit their home, Mom would help out his mother while we checked in with him to see if he needed anything – or which record he wanted to hear next.

Her model of respect and acceptance led me to the life I lead now. I learned the value of each person, regardless their abilities, or health status, or age. My mother is a shining example of treating others as you would like to be treated- and I thank her for allowing me to grow in her environment of acceptance. I know 3 or 4 of her grandchildren thank her as well.