Family Tributes part 3 - Mom

     I have had many teachers throughout my years of schooling, but my first teacher sang somewhere over the rainbow before I fell asleep.  She sat with me at the piano when I was 5 and taught me how to plink out twinkle twinkle star.  She taught me tricks for how to put my coat on when I was three.  She never tried to correct me when my pre-school teacher told her I was fond of wandered around the classroom and sing to the other children. She sparked my curiosity as a small child through bubbles and dissected daffodils.  She is a teacher to many and a friend to many more, but but I am lucky to only have to share her role of mom with one other person (and trust me, sharing mom was quite the dispute back in our toddler days).

     Some college kids only talk to their parents at set times once a week; my mom and I call each other on the phone sporadically, almost every day, with news about the goings-on across the country and the thoughts of our minds.   You would naturally wants to tell a best friend about what's going on in your life, right?  Some kids, especially in elementary school, saw this to be incredibly strange: "Eeehh, Kathryn, she tells her mom everything..."  I never saw a problem with this.  I still don't.

     I thank God that I have had parents who were never passive in my life, who listened to me, yelled at me, and comforted me exactly when I needed it.  She's dealt with me tears, my frustrations, and my laughter all the same.  My mom has one of the most kind, loving, caring hearts I've known and has a thoughtful special way of understanding that I aspire to have.  She sacrifices a ton of time to help our family.  She drove me 800 miles with my horse to compete in the championship when I was 16. She taught me to "tell your truths" and do what you need to do for you.   Like I mentioned in a previous post, she is never afraid to sing loudly the fragments of songs that she knows on the radio, or dance like it's the 80's when she's listening to her iPod around the house.  Her voice popped into my head the other day when I was at a prayer service, as we all light candles to place on a world map in honor of the people we love.  I remembered a song she used to sing with my sister and I in the car when we were little, and before we fell asleep at night:

"This little light of mine

I'm gonna let it shine...

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

Thanks mom. I'm gonna try.