You're Still Beautiful, Mommy

A few nights ago, Michael (my 12 year old)  and I were watching a movie on Netflix and a song from the 90’s came on that I hadn’t heard in years.  And, as only music has the power to do, it really carried me back to a time when I was living in NYC, a law student, living a very different life. “I remember that song,” I told my son.  “That came out when I was 22.”

“What was it like to be 22?” my son asked me.  I had to think, after all that was 28 years ago.

“Well,” I said, as I struggled with my memory, “overall, it was great to be young and beautiful but it wasn’t so great to have no money all the time.”

“You’re still young and beautiful, Mommy!” decried my son.  My first reaction was to say what I would say if I were among friends, “Come on, I am none of those things, nor does it matter to me because I now have everything I ever wanted back in those days.”  But I stopped myself.  I had to think about how my son saw me.

I wonder if anyone else remembers that children’s book from years ago.  A little boy gets lost in a department store and when the store personnel ask him what his mother looks like, he tells them “my mother is the most beautiful woman in the world.”  The store clerks bring over all manner of physically beautiful women only to be told time after time by the little boy that none of these women are his mother.  Finally, a plain and sturdy woman comes over and the boy throws his arms around her neck and exclaims, “that’s my mother!  See, I told you she was the most beautiful woman in the world!”

And so, if our kids see us moms as Beautiful, and their Dad as heroic and strong; and their grandparents as the wisest people in the world -- really, who are we to burst their little cocoon of Happiness?

So instead of telling my son he needed glasses, or he should have seen me 30 years ago, or 20 pounds ago, or before wrinkles and crows feet; I simply smiled at my loving, trusting boy -- which gave me even more wrinkles and crows feet -- and simply said, “Thank you, my boy.”  

Life can be so full of simple pleasures, if we just open our hearts to them!

Have a great day, everyone and, as always Remember to Count Your Blessings! <3 Mrs. Lo www.LoBiondoPage.Blogspot.com (Photo from 2004, Mrs. Lo and Baby Michael)