Mama, Big Mama, Grandma Josie, Old Dude!
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN
She's a very simple woman, neither well educated nor possessed of remarkable
facial features. A woman of nondescript nature. Modern day novelist would call
her earthy.
She is not one who is delicate, a little frail now but you can see reminders of
the aches and pains of back-breaking work. A country woman who has
plowed fields, chopped wood, carried her babes on her hip through freshly cut
weeds and nursed them in the wilds, nearly barefoot.
Fruitful, wide of hips, with ample breasts, she knew nothing of being pampered,
or catered to. This was alien to her upbringing for a woman's work was
as hard as a man's; harder perhaps because there was no time for
recuperation after illness or childbirth. Just a different task, just the will to
keep on keeping on.
This woman carries in her heart a driving force. If she had been afforded
the luxury of the affluent, she would have been considered ambitious.
There is a hunger in her. A hunger for experiences that she never had. A
hunger to go, to see, to be a part of a life denied her through her sheltered
existence. She has been turned away from too many doors.
She eats with gusto, the drive continuing, enjoying every morsel, as if
perhaps she feels that it must be savored now. A napkin would be a thief
robbing her of this single delight. She would not dare deny herself.
There is a passion in this ordinary act. Certain foods must be consumed
with the fingers. The warmth, texture, and aroma enhancing the flavor.
If passing by her window, you may hear amidst the clatter of pots and pans,
a song: Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see...
She loves to sing. It is her lover. It comforts her when lonely and in despair.
It soothes her soul and helps her celebrate life!
She's a mother hen, comforting her brood, pecking them away from danger,
hurting when they become hurt. She is the haven in the storm, the
backbone in the jelly fish and she tells them all, conversation sprinkled with
grammatical errors, and gross mispronunciations: "You can be what you want
to be. Just cause I ain't able to give y'all what I want you to have, ain't no reason
for you not to succeed. I give y'all what I have, but y'all gotta give more!"
Cleaning and scouring the possessions of others has fostered in her an appreciation
for pretty things. She likes them but is not particularly interested in having them.
So long has she been accustomed to doing with what she had, that she is not
overwhelmed by material things.
Asking nothing from anyone, she is fiercely proud and independent. At times she
seems intimidated and weak. Her Christianity preventing her from speaking often
with anger. At other times she fights back, demanding her rights, as if for many years
she was doomed to suffer in silence. Fleeting moments of anger beaten back.
Paranoia, or what analysts would call paranoia overcomes her occasionally. People
are always hurting her with words or gestures. She cannot accept her own goodness
or general likability. Yet she would never burden anyone with her peculiarities.
Acutely aware of her shortcomings, she strives to better herself. She expresses these
desires by attending any class that she feels will broaden her knowledge of formal
education or cultural enrichment.
The years have refined her somewhat. Dressed in her best, happiness shining on
her face, she becomes a beautiful woman. Quick to smile. She walks with
confidence. She knows she is attractive. A sweetness prevails throughout her whole
being. But deep inside she is most comfortable without the trappings of elegance.
How would the "Old Masters" paint her. Surely not in velvet and plumes.
This portrait of a woman--strong, loving, and kind. The epitome of courage and
perseverance. The salt of the earth deserves no greater accolade than...
MOTHER!
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
[Written by Carolyn Harris Betts May 8, 1984. Reproduced in memory of our mom and the Harris Family matriarch who passed into glory May 26, 1997 in Chicago, IL]
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY FAMILY!
No comments:
Post a Comment