Choosing happiness

My dear Mama lived to be ninety-five.  She lived through the Great Depression of America, and was engaged to my Papa for three years as he fought in World War II.  She knew far too well that happiness was a conscious choice.  It's was not a matter of denying that hard things happen. It was the realization that it is always possible to find joy. Sometimes you had to look really hard.

For example, Mama loved to learn.  She once attended a seminar where they told the participants to buy a pair of those glasses with the fake nose and mustache.  He then told everybody to use them to provide a much needed humor break for themselves and others.  She used that principle well.  She would put them on randomly.  Sometimes when she was riding in a car.  Often I would see a car with everyone laughing.  I would glance over and surprise, Mama had her fake glasses on.  My sister-in law once found her sitting in front of her tv with her fake nose on.  Needless to say, my sister-in law had a good laugh!

Mama said that she didn't just put that fake nose on to make others laugh.  It worked just as well for her in lifting her own spirits.

My mother fostered an amazing 20 children.  Some were official, others were not.  She had wanted a large family.  She had eight pregnancies and only three of us survived.  She often repeated to me, "You don't have to give birth to be a mother.  Being a mother is about nurturing, and loving."  She was a vivid example of this principle.

Once again it's Mother's Day.  The other night I could feel her close by me in the night.  As an asthmatic child when the only treatment was oxygen and prayers we spent many a long night together.  I would be in the recliner gasping for air, mama would be on the couch next to me.  When I am sick and miserable in the night I can feel her loving angel presence comforting me and cheering me on.

Who knows, maybe I'll be blessed enough to see her haunt me sometime.  Of course, she'll have on her fake glasses, complete with nose and mustache!