Act Your Age
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 7:00AM MAD21 By Sarah (Living Between the Lines)
When I turned 25 years old, I had a minor meltdown. I sat on my friend Rick’s couch and just wailed about how I was “getting ready to be thirty!” I just thought that my life was over! Rick, bless his heart, had the patience of Job and though I’m sure he rolled his eyes, he listened and tried to sympathize.
When I turned 29 years old, I really started to panic. I saw 30 rolling in like a freight train and all I could focus on was what I felt I had missed in life. For a few months, I caught myself really whining at God about it. But my 30th birthday came and went and soon I noticed that 30 wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was.
Now, I’ve passed 31. But I am finding it harder to whine to God about getting older because of my Mom.
My mom has always been rather childlike. Oh, she’s responsible. She the bestest middle school teacher in the whole wide world. Believe me, I know. When I was in the 8th grade, she was the only 8th grade history teacher in the school. I was forced to take her class. And she was harder on me than every other student so that she could prove that she wasn’t playing favorites. She rode me hard all year long, but watching her do something that she is so gifted at totally changed how I viewed her. But as responsible and gifted as my mom is, she is above all, childlike.
We’ve always teased my mother that she’s easily entertained. But the truth is that she’s totally in wonder of the world around her. She loves to learn new things. She doesn’t hide from challenges. And she can’t sit still! When we were small, she would sit on the front porch during a rain storm and play guitar and sing with us. She would get my brother and I (and all 5 of our cousins) up early, early, early on a summer morning, pack peanut butter and banana sandwiches and warm Pepsi, and take us to the beach or museums or aquariums. She’s the one that taught me how to play tennis and taught my brother how to play guitar. And she’s the one that embarrassed us when we’d bring friends or dates home because she would interrogate them! Not in an accusatory way, but out of childlike curiosity. (I thought I’d die of embarrassment the time I had a date with a football player and she asked if she could feel his bicep. Oh, MOM! He was flattered. I was mortified!)
Now that I’ve been living on my own for over a decade, I watch in amazement as my mom just keeps getting more and more active and curious and FUN! She still plays guitar, but now she has started taking flute lessons. She’s been on two trips to India. She changed her diet and started exercising and has lost over a hundred pounds. She walks, swims, bikes. And bless her heart, it’s only taken us about 15 years to teach her how to check her email. In short, not that she was bad before, but she’s getting better with age.
Last time that I was home, I shared my favorite poem with my mom because to me, it describes her. She smiled and nodded, but I’m not sure that she really understood what I was trying to say. So, let me try again…
“Come, my friends, ’tis not too late to seek a newer world… We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will, to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” — from Tennyson’s “Ulysses”
So, thanks Mama, for never letting me sit still… For never letting me be bored… For showing me how to be curious… Your love of music made me a singer. Your love of books made me a reader and a writer. Your love of silliness taught me to laugh. And your love of life taught me how to live!
Sarah Salter is a missionary and a writer who works in full time ministry. She believes that God has called her to be transparent and show the world Who He Is by letting them see how He works in her life. From that belief was born her little home on the web: Living Between the Lines. Sarah lives in Central North Carolina with her best friend: a sixty pound lap dog named Sadie.
Family, Family Life, Joy, Kids, Moms, Parents in Family Life
Reader Comments (3)
Great tribute and lesson for us all- thanks!
Awesome, Sarah! I totally love your mom (tell her I said so). :)
This is such a great story, Sarah. I hope you've shared it with your mom. Us moms like to hear that we've done SOMEthing right along the way.
It is harder to turn some ages, I think. I had issues with 12 and 20, and for some reason I'm not really thrilled about turning 40 this year. But it's a good thing to take these times to reflect on the things we HAVE been able to do, and then plan what we want to accomplish in the next decade if we are blessed with those days and years.
I pray that you mom continues to inspire you for many years.