A the
eve of celebrating 2012 Mothers’ Day, I’d like to take a special moment aside, sincerely
wishing each and every female readers and of course, the talented and
thoughtful teammates of our project: Happy Mother’s Day!
Speaking
of teammates who have joined me to work together, doing our Mother’s Day
project – a rare documentary for recording the finest
human spirit – motherhood,
I should let you know that I am so privileged to work with you guys. Maybe you
don’t know this, and for majority of you, we have not met in person; but to a
larger extent, you are the true reasons and heartfelt enlightenment that many
of us have hung around in the city for years and are still counting. Simply put, you have provided us with those
beautiful, colorful and wonderful sceneries dotted along the cyber landscapes
when sun and moon rise and set on the horizon each day and night. I really
appreciate your time and efforts, spent on your heartwarming pieces, not to
mention your sacrifice made to hold off your own posts in your own blogs.
I am fully aware many of you had to deal with
you busy schedules and obligations. In addition, some of you might have experienced
some emotional storms when you were driving on your memory lanes. Granted, it’s
not easy to relive some of those historical moments frame by frame with those
tender sentiments filled you up while you were trying to put your mother’s love
into words, but I am sure that when you’d look back one day, you know you did a right thing for letting
your heart sing in your full and splendid voices
Now
without further ado, help yourself to the table of “banquet” made by labor of
loves.
Thank
you all!
Note:
1) If
the photos on this post are not specified, they were from internet.
2) For
the record, I did invite some male net friends to participate this event, but
they seem too shy to do so or they might encounter some serious difficulties
for getting the permissions from their wives. Another reason, I should not get
married. :))
3) The entries are arranged in ids’ alphabetic
sequences.
A baby asked God, "They tell me you are
sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small
and helpless?"
一個小胎兒問上帝:“他們說您明天就要把我送到地球上去了,但是我如此弱小無助,在那裏如何生活呢?”
"Your angel will be waiting for you and will take
care of you."
你的天使正期待著你的到來,她會照顧你。”
The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in
heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy."
孩子又詢問:“請告訴我吧。在天堂這裏,我除了唱歌和歡笑不用做任何事情。”
God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also
smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."
上帝說:“你的天使會為你唱歌,對你微笑。你會感受到她的愛,會非常快活。”
Again the child asked, "And how am I going to be able
to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"
孩子又問:“我不會語言,怎麽能懂得人們在和我說什麽?”
God said, "Your angel will tell you the most
beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care,
your angel will teach you how to speak."
上帝說:“你的天使會對你說世界上最美最甜的語言,會非常耐心細致照顧你,你的天使會教你說話。”
"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to
you?"
“倘若我想和您說話怎麽辦呢?”
God said, "Your angel will place your hands together
and will teach you how to pray."
上帝說:“你的天使會把你的雙手放在一起,教你祈禱。”
"Who will protect me?"
“誰來保護我呢?”
God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it
means risking it's life."
上帝說:“即使是舍棄自己的生命,你的天使也會保護你的。”
"But I will always be sad because I will not see you
anymore."
“可我一直都會憂傷的,因為我不能再見到您。。。”
God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about
Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be
next to you."
上帝說:“你的天使會一直與你提到我,她會教你走正路,回到我的身邊~事實上,我一直都與你同在。”
At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices
from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to
leave now, please tell me my angel's name."
陪著孩子成長的過程有歡笑,有淚水。還記得大寶呀呀學語,含含糊糊說出來:“ I love you” 的時候我抱著他親了又親;還記得雪兒在Tahoe湖野營從滑板上摔下來,膝蓋被磕成草莓狀的時候,我的心和她的腿一樣疼;多少個夜晚給孩子們讀書唱催眠曲,多少個運動會為他們呐喊助威。給他們做了飯菜就是給饑餓的人以溫飽,和青少年兒女談心就是去“荷爾蒙監獄”探視了小囚徒。。。
Leslie 說:“God has
made every little flower different.”
~上帝把每一朵小花都造得不一樣
kathy 說;“What
does God want me to do today?”
~今天上帝要我做什麽
Sherri說:“I did
not give birth to them all, but they are all my children, I love them all.”
~他們並不都是我親生的,但都是我的孩子,我都愛。
姨媽說:“十指連心,咬哪一個不疼?等你的老二出生你就知道了,你會有足夠的愛。”
Christine說:“Count
your grace-filled moments. Look at your cup half full, not half empty.”
She always remembers what her mother told her at the hospital-- "Sweetheart, don't worry. I am going to be better. I will be home tomorrow..." Then the mother was nursed by the doctors and nurses. She slumped in that hospital bed for a week. She slept and slept, and slept.... Actually, the mother had never been awake since then. A week later, she passed away. That year she was not yet 10. When she went out of the hospital building, she saw on both sides of the street the wild pear trees were in full blossom.
那天我和她一起過馬路,有車子來,我不自覺地就摟了一下她的腰,她居然避開我,說: Don’t touch me in public (別在公眾場合碰我好不好).我不敢相信自己的耳朵.從此她開始要求獨立,強烈地感受自己是一個個體,有能力做一切決定,她有智慧有辦法,大人們都不能理解她,笨得可以,嘮叨得令她不屑.身體的親密沒有了,生活裏的交流也沒有了,她希望我供應她一切所需,但不要管她.我說什麽,她都當耳旁風.
我挺痛苦的.
九年級一開學,她居然逃學一個禮拜.我很緊張,朋友告訴我突然的變化很可能是因交了新朋友,也許是很不好的朋友.我和她談話,她說隻是和朋友在街上逛,有時玩玩電子遊戲.我帶她和老師去談,老師問朋友是誰,她就是一句話: I cannot tell.(我不能說),她這次的義氣令我很沮喪.我在下課的時候去學校門口找她,遇到她的朋友,我懇求她們幫助我,一個好朋友說:阿姨,沒事,她們隻是打賭,據囡囡頭說,她已經決定回去上課了.
In my entire
life, there are many people who have cast great influences on me, inspiring me
to go after my goals without being inhibited by the constraints. Yet, besides
of my father, it’s my mother who would hold the title for being the most
influential figure in my personal domain, and the one I look up to most in the
world. In fact, my mother has been my mentor and the most loyal and trustworthy
friend as far as I can remember. To put it in another way, it is my mother who
handed me a moral compass that affected
and encouraged me to strive for a better person beyond career
advancements, and in the meantime,
served as a safety net that protects me
whenever I failed at something or was knocked off balance from those tribulations wrapped in the package of breakups in romantic relationship.
From her
appearance, my mother appeals to be a
tall, beautiful and delicate woman; but I’ve learned from all these years, underneath
her softly spoken facade, she is actually a determined, formidable and
to-the-point kind of person. In addition, she has this amazing ability to
motivate me without dampening my spirits. For example, a few days ago, I was on
the phone with her, bragging all about my glories in terms of how I did at work
by beating many of my peers on the quarterly reports with a zestful and buoyant
tone. After finishing listening to my
showoffs patiently, (the following dialogs between my mother and me were
carried out in SH dialect, but I “translated’ them into Mandarin in order to avoid
confusion) she said to me, “你還記得,你小的時候,我們一道讀過關羽的小人書嗎?他走五關斬六將,但最終卻敗走麥城。“
For a split moment, her words prompted me to
conjure up this vivid imagery from my
childhood: At my bedtime, mother sat in the chair next to my bed, reading
stories to me. Her pale skin and often
shadowed eyes showed evidence of the exhaustion carried back from the maternity
ward of the hospital were magically erased by this golden and tender hue from
the soft rays shed from the tall lamp, and her sweet voice mixed with the story
plots was taking me into another world far away and long ago, where heroes and
villains battled for the justice and freedom, and love, honesty and kindness
seemed always prevailing in the end. Sensing my long pulse at the other side of
the line, my mother asked me,“我剛才的話,會不會讓你聽了不舒服呢?”“媽,不會啊。我知道你的意思,我會注意謙虛謹慎,謝謝你的提醒!“ I smiled and answered her question with a strong pull of
appreciation while the heartfelt warmth crossed over my mind.
Reading
stories to me was a luxury ritual bestowed upon me by my grandma and my mother
in my early ages while my father was
studying for his PhD in Germany.
Although both of them are avid readers with kind hearts, when it came to
reading time; there was a big difference between these two women. My grandma would “ignore” my pleas and only
choose age appropriate materials to read to me, on the other hand, my mother
would allow me to select my favorite books which more likely were those action packed comics books. But there
was a catch, after we read a book; I must answer mother’s questions about the
characters and their fates in the book honestly without hiding my views. Sometimes her questions were tough and
difficult to answer. Nevertheless, no
matter how ridicules and childish my answers might sound, not a single time she
would laugh at my immatureness or criticize me for my shaky reasoning. Instead,
she praised me for my unconventional approach and encouraged me to look into
those details and figure out new angles from the old stories.
Looking back, I think that such time sensitive
cognitive process helped me to lay a good foundation in terms of absorbing
knowledge effectively and timely. Today people at my work place would regularly
make a joke that if someone throws a pile of loose documents in the air, I
could be able to finish reading them and give a bullet point summary after
those papers hit on the floor. Of course, such expression is a gross
exaggeration, but reading fast and thinking quickly is one of these fringe
benefits that my mother, as my best teacher, gave to me.
Sometimes I
wondered what if my mother were another kind of woman, how I would turn out to
be. I asked this silly question because
I can’t thank her enough for being a dutiful and caring counselor to me all
these times. I remember in my teenager years, hormones suddenly kicked in and
made me crazy about girls. It was my mother who demystified certain aspects
about girl’s body and mind for me. Equipped with medical knowledge and plus her
own experience she was able to guild me through those pitiful traps of
adolescence, helping me emerge out unscathed.
Even today, by some measure I am doing alright, but when I run into girl
troubles, I found myself speak over the phone with my mother, telling her about
my pains and everything (well, not everything, exclude stuffs I do with my
girlfriend, though.:)), asking her for
advices and suggestions, and she is always glad to offer her help, no
matter how thorny and tricky my problems were. So many times after talking with her, I felt
peaceful and confident to face up the challenges.
I never
could really visualize how much my mother loves me because I always take it for
granted until one day during a trip to home;
my grandma described a scene to me, which has implanted permanently in my mind since: After I came to America, many evenings
when my mother returned from the hospital;
she would go straight into my room, sitting there for hours alone, often
organizing and reorganizing again and again
those things I used and played before I left such as game
consoles/gears, game holders, musical instruments, walkman, cd players, comic books, trophies … with
tears cycling in her eyes. Time to time when she came out from my room, she would tell
my grandma and my father she wished that
she would never have been a “bad” mother to me by taking away
my video games gears or music players just because I did not do my
school work promptly when I was with her.
Envisioning my mother, a strong and dignified woman, sitting in my room
in the dark with tears in her eyes stroke me overwhelmingly, all of the sudden,
I realize there will not be a word or sentences that can adequately depict my
mother’s love in my life, ever.
Dear mother
and grandma, I’d like you to know if you
would read this essay; Maybe I am
never able to pay you back for all of your affections and
sacrifices which is like a candle that gives away brightness by melting itself
off, but I can surely promise you one thing, I’ll never stop loving you. Happy Mother’s Day!