Saturday, May 7, 2016

Would A Mom Scare Her Kid?

One day, many years ago when I was a kid, I was walking through our house and it seemed strangely quiet. I knew my brother was not home but I did not know where the others were. It was late afternoon and I had just gotten home from school.

“Well it’s too early for dad to be home from work,” I thought. “Mom must be at the neighbor’s house. So Cheryl is probably with her.”

I walked through a short little hallway area to a door which led into our garage.

“It looks like I have the run of the house,” I chuckled to myself and pulled the door open.

Suddenly a figure jumped toward me from the shadows shouting, “Booo!!!”

I leaped in fear… surprised and startled, heart racing, skin tingling, frontal cortex on high alert.

(…Actually, I have no idea what the frontal cortex does when a person is startled but it seemed like a nice little touch, didn’t it?)

It took a second but I quickly recognized my mother’s smiling face. She laughed and said, “Gotcha!”

I regained my composure and said, “No you didn’t. I knew you were there.”

She continued to laugh, knowingly, and said, “Oh no. I got you.”

You might be thinking, “What kind of mom would do such a thing to her dear, precious, adorable, exceptionally bright son? …Or to Dan too, for that matter?”

A fantastic mom—a wonderful mom. That’s who!

I could provide all kinds of sentimental and tender-hearted reasons why I miss my mom. But she was fun, silly and playful. And that’s part of why I miss her, too.

#MothersDayWeekend


P.S. With this story from my childhood in mind, are the pieces of the puzzle falling into place? Are you beginning to see, now?

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