May 10, 2025
In a faraway land, there was a young boy.
The boy observed all of the things his mother did for him and his sisters and brother. All of the ordinary, but important things, like making meals, making sure the boy and his siblings were safe and teaching them the value of education.
But the boy’s mother did something more important for the boy than the day-to-day. The boy’s mother taught him the most valuable and important character traits in the world — appreciation and empathy. It wasn’t that his mother taught those things through books or instruction. No. It was through his observation of her.
You see, the boy would later grow up and see a world in which people were not appreciative. Not appreciative of one’s station in life. Not appreciative of one’s gifts that had been given. Not appreciative of pretty much anything. And even more importantly, he grew up seeing so many that lacked empathy. Empathy was a word he didn’t understand when he was a little boy. But he had observed it in his mother — someone that raised her five kids and instead of grieving her own plight, grieved for others. Her heart hurt when someone else’s heart hurt.
The young boy, that was no longer so young, thought about his mother as Mother’s Day approached and thought to himself “I had a damn good mom.” And he wondered if the world would be different if others had observed his mom.
