A the
eve of celebrating 2012 Mothers’ Day, I’d like to take a special moment aside, sincerely
wishing each and every female readers and of course, the talented and
thoughtful teammates of our project: Happy Mother’s Day!
Speaking
of teammates who have joined me to work together, doing our Mother’s Day
project – a rare documentary for recording the finest
human spirit – motherhood,
I should let you know that I am so privileged to work with you guys. Maybe you
don’t know this, and for majority of you, we have not met in person; but to a
larger extent, you are the true reasons and heartfelt enlightenment that many
of us have hung around in the city for years and are still counting. Simply put, you have provided us with those
beautiful, colorful and wonderful sceneries dotted along the cyber landscapes
when sun and moon rise and set on the horizon each day and night. I really
appreciate your time and efforts, spent on your heartwarming pieces, not to
mention your sacrifice made to hold off your own posts in your own blogs.
I am fully aware many of you had to deal with
you busy schedules and obligations. In addition, some of you might have experienced
some emotional storms when you were driving on your memory lanes. Granted, it’s
not easy to relive some of those historical moments frame by frame with those
tender sentiments filled you up while you were trying to put your mother’s love
into words, but I am sure that when you’d look back one day, you know you did a right thing for letting
your heart sing in your full and splendid voices
Now
without further ado, help yourself to the table of “banquet” made by labor of
loves.
Thank
you all!
Note:
1) If
the photos on this post are not specified, they were from internet.
2) For
the record, I did invite some male net friends to participate this event, but
they seem too shy to do so or they might encounter some serious difficulties
for getting the permissions from their wives. Another reason, I should not get
married. :))
3) The entries are arranged in ids’ alphabetic
sequences.
A baby asked God, "They tell me you are
sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small
and helpless?"
一个小胎儿问上帝:“他们说您明天就要把我送到地球上去了,但是我如此弱小无助,在那里如何生活呢?”
"Your angel will be waiting for you and will take
care of you."
你的天使正期待着你的到来,她会照顾你。”
The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in
heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy."
孩子又询问:“请告诉我吧。在天堂这里,我除了唱歌和欢笑不用做任何事情。”
God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also
smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."
上帝说:“你的天使会为你唱歌,对你微笑。你会感受到她的爱,会非常快活。”
Again the child asked, "And how am I going to be able
to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"
孩子又问:“我不会语言,怎么能懂得人们在和我说什么?”
God said, "Your angel will tell you the most
beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care,
your angel will teach you how to speak."
上帝说:“你的天使会对你说世界上最美最甜的语言,会非常耐心细致照顾你,你的天使会教你说话。”
"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to
you?"
“倘若我想和您说话怎么办呢?”
God said, "Your angel will place your hands together
and will teach you how to pray."
上帝说:“你的天使会把你的双手放在一起,教你祈祷。”
"Who will protect me?"
“谁来保护我呢?”
God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it
means risking it's life."
上帝说:“即使是舍弃自己的生命,你的天使也会保护你的。”
"But I will always be sad because I will not see you
anymore."
“可我一直都会忧伤的,因为我不能再见到您。。。”
God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about
Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be
next to you."
上帝说:“你的天使会一直与你提到我,她会教你走正路,回到我的身边~事实上,我一直都与你同在。”
At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices
from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to
leave now, please tell me my angel's name."
陪着孩子成长的过程有欢笑,有泪水。还记得大宝呀呀学语,含含糊糊说出来:“ I love you” 的时候我抱着他亲了又亲;还记得雪儿在Tahoe湖野营从滑板上摔下来,膝盖被磕成草莓状的时候,我的心和她的腿一样疼;多少个夜晚给孩子们读书唱催眠曲,多少个运动会为他们呐喊助威。给他们做了饭菜就是给饥饿的人以温饱,和青少年儿女谈心就是去“荷尔蒙监狱”探视了小囚徒。。。
Leslie 说:“God has
made every little flower different.”
~上帝把每一朵小花都造得不一样
kathy 说;“What
does God want me to do today?”
~今天上帝要我做什么
Sherri说:“I did
not give birth to them all, but they are all my children, I love them all.”
~他们并不都是我亲生的,但都是我的孩子,我都爱。
姨妈说:“十指连心,咬哪一个不疼?等你的老二出生你就知道了,你会有足够的爱。”
Christine说:“Count
your grace-filled moments. Look at your cup half full, not half empty.”
She always remembers what her mother told her at the hospital-- "Sweetheart, don't worry. I am going to be better. I will be home tomorrow..." Then the mother was nursed by the doctors and nurses. She slumped in that hospital bed for a week. She slept and slept, and slept.... Actually, the mother had never been awake since then. A week later, she passed away. That year she was not yet 10. When she went out of the hospital building, she saw on both sides of the street the wild pear trees were in full blossom.
那天我和她一起过马路,有车子来,我不自觉地就搂了一下她的腰,她居然避开我,说: Don’t touch me in public (别在公众场合碰我好不好).我不敢相信自己的耳朵.从此她开始要求独立,强烈地感受自己是一个个体,有能力做一切决定,她有智慧有办法,大人们都不能理解她,笨得可以,唠叨得令她不屑.身体的亲密没有了,生活里的交流也没有了,她希望我供应她一切所需,但不要管她.我说什么,她都当耳旁风.
我挺痛苦的.
九年级一开学,她居然逃学一个礼拜.我很紧张,朋友告诉我突然的变化很可能是因交了新朋友,也许是很不好的朋友.我和她谈话,她说只是和朋友在街上逛,有时玩玩电子游戏.我带她和老师去谈,老师问朋友是谁,她就是一句话: I cannot tell.(我不能说),她这次的义气令我很沮丧.我在下课的时候去学校门口找她,遇到她的朋友,我恳求她们帮助我,一个好朋友说:阿姨,没事,她们只是打赌,据囡囡头说,她已经决定回去上课了.
In my entire
life, there are many people who have cast great influences on me, inspiring me
to go after my goals without being inhibited by the constraints. Yet, besides
of my father, it’s my mother who would hold the title for being the most
influential figure in my personal domain, and the one I look up to most in the
world. In fact, my mother has been my mentor and the most loyal and trustworthy
friend as far as I can remember. To put it in another way, it is my mother who
handed me a moral compass that affected
and encouraged me to strive for a better person beyond career
advancements, and in the meantime,
served as a safety net that protects me
whenever I failed at something or was knocked off balance from those tribulations wrapped in the package of breakups in romantic relationship.
From her
appearance, my mother appeals to be a
tall, beautiful and delicate woman; but I’ve learned from all these years, underneath
her softly spoken facade, she is actually a determined, formidable and
to-the-point kind of person. In addition, she has this amazing ability to
motivate me without dampening my spirits. For example, a few days ago, I was on
the phone with her, bragging all about my glories in terms of how I did at work
by beating many of my peers on the quarterly reports with a zestful and buoyant
tone. After finishing listening to my
showoffs patiently, (the following dialogs between my mother and me were
carried out in SH dialect, but I “translated’ them into Mandarin in order to avoid
confusion) she said to me, “你还记得,你小的时候,我们一道读过关羽的小人书吗?他走五关斩六将,但最终却败走麦城。“
For a split moment, her words prompted me to
conjure up this vivid imagery from my
childhood: At my bedtime, mother sat in the chair next to my bed, reading
stories to me. Her pale skin and often
shadowed eyes showed evidence of the exhaustion carried back from the maternity
ward of the hospital were magically erased by this golden and tender hue from
the soft rays shed from the tall lamp, and her sweet voice mixed with the story
plots was taking me into another world far away and long ago, where heroes and
villains battled for the justice and freedom, and love, honesty and kindness
seemed always prevailing in the end. Sensing my long pulse at the other side of
the line, my mother asked me,“我刚才的话,会不会让你听了不舒服呢?”“妈,不会啊。我知道你的意思,我会注意谦虚谨慎,谢谢你的提醒!“ I smiled and answered her question with a strong pull of
appreciation while the heartfelt warmth crossed over my mind.
Reading
stories to me was a luxury ritual bestowed upon me by my grandma and my mother
in my early ages while my father was
studying for his PhD in Germany.
Although both of them are avid readers with kind hearts, when it came to
reading time; there was a big difference between these two women. My grandma would “ignore” my pleas and only
choose age appropriate materials to read to me, on the other hand, my mother
would allow me to select my favorite books which more likely were those action packed comics books. But there
was a catch, after we read a book; I must answer mother’s questions about the
characters and their fates in the book honestly without hiding my views. Sometimes her questions were tough and
difficult to answer. Nevertheless, no
matter how ridicules and childish my answers might sound, not a single time she
would laugh at my immatureness or criticize me for my shaky reasoning. Instead,
she praised me for my unconventional approach and encouraged me to look into
those details and figure out new angles from the old stories.
Looking back, I think that such time sensitive
cognitive process helped me to lay a good foundation in terms of absorbing
knowledge effectively and timely. Today people at my work place would regularly
make a joke that if someone throws a pile of loose documents in the air, I
could be able to finish reading them and give a bullet point summary after
those papers hit on the floor. Of course, such expression is a gross
exaggeration, but reading fast and thinking quickly is one of these fringe
benefits that my mother, as my best teacher, gave to me.
Sometimes I
wondered what if my mother were another kind of woman, how I would turn out to
be. I asked this silly question because
I can’t thank her enough for being a dutiful and caring counselor to me all
these times. I remember in my teenager years, hormones suddenly kicked in and
made me crazy about girls. It was my mother who demystified certain aspects
about girl’s body and mind for me. Equipped with medical knowledge and plus her
own experience she was able to guild me through those pitiful traps of
adolescence, helping me emerge out unscathed.
Even today, by some measure I am doing alright, but when I run into girl
troubles, I found myself speak over the phone with my mother, telling her about
my pains and everything (well, not everything, exclude stuffs I do with my
girlfriend, though.:)), asking her for
advices and suggestions, and she is always glad to offer her help, no
matter how thorny and tricky my problems were. So many times after talking with her, I felt
peaceful and confident to face up the challenges.
I never
could really visualize how much my mother loves me because I always take it for
granted until one day during a trip to home;
my grandma described a scene to me, which has implanted permanently in my mind since: After I came to America, many evenings
when my mother returned from the hospital;
she would go straight into my room, sitting there for hours alone, often
organizing and reorganizing again and again
those things I used and played before I left such as game
consoles/gears, game holders, musical instruments, walkman, cd players, comic books, trophies … with
tears cycling in her eyes. Time to time when she came out from my room, she would tell
my grandma and my father she wished that
she would never have been a “bad” mother to me by taking away
my video games gears or music players just because I did not do my
school work promptly when I was with her.
Envisioning my mother, a strong and dignified woman, sitting in my room
in the dark with tears in her eyes stroke me overwhelmingly, all of the sudden,
I realize there will not be a word or sentences that can adequately depict my
mother’s love in my life, ever.
Dear mother
and grandma, I’d like you to know if you
would read this essay; Maybe I am
never able to pay you back for all of your affections and
sacrifices which is like a candle that gives away brightness by melting itself
off, but I can surely promise you one thing, I’ll never stop loving you. Happy Mother’s Day!