Author: Mother

Do you remember those heady days of Summer when camping in the back garden with your father and playing in streams meant that the school holidays had arrived and all was well?  Reliving those memories, with modern interpretations (for obvious reasons), has been the adventure most enjoyed here, this month.

The cloud formations, sunsets and escapades on the beaches and sand dunes never fail to thrill and enliven.  Forays to the Flower Show, as ever, thrill and delight.

Life is good even when it is so very different from the plan of twenty-five years ago.

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, remember to find the joy despite your circumstances, sometimes, not as a result of them.  Live well!

Frequently, (daily, if I am being totally honest) as I coerce them into whatever task or mischief currently occupies my mind, my offspring are subjected to the refrain of “Labour gives/gave me unlimited privileges”.

It is a phrase which I suggest that all mothers adopt!

The wide ranging privileges which labour has given me, during the last twenty two years, have included my ability to command that my children “always hunt as a pack”, to insist that “Yes, your brother/sister DOES have to go with you”, to embarrass them at will and, with eyebrows raised, to respond, “Really?” in various tones of incredulity, disbelief, disapproval, fascination and mirth.

The privileges of labour have seen my exhausted children: forced to stand on trains in order to give their elders their seats, subjected to years of trawling through spelling lists, standing silently and patiently whilst my “quick word” with a chum has lasted an hour or more, as well as stolidly plodding through galleries, libraries, museums and other “improving” institutions.

Frankly, there have been times when, in hindsight, their pre-labour selves would cheerfully have plumped for another womb!

This month, however, my use of the privileges of labour have been restricted to almost physically bursting at the seams with spectacular prideJ.

Again, I only have one child studying at university because my eldest has finished – with a First Class Honours degree – and a job!

This is all the more wonderful because, of his own volition, he spent a year of his A-levels devoting himself to helping me manage the child care of his youngest brother when I had no-one else upon whom to lean.  It resulted in his repeating the year and he did it all with incredible grace, love and maturity – without murmur, resentment or irritability.

I cannot praise him enough.

Thank you, my son.  I love you.  You are a complete star and the whole world should know that.

If you are reading this and labour has given you the privilege of having complete stars in your life too, please remember to take every opportunity to let your children know – and, then, use your privilege to remind them that the proper receptacle for dirty laundry is a basket, not their bedroom floor, as usual!

Take care.

In this time of such political change and uncertainty, it is imperative that we remember that every new day and every new situation is full of positive potential and adventure, if we simply address our minds and attitudes to the possibilities.

As Sir Winston Churchill opined in one of my favourite quotations, “The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity.  The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”.

It is time to choose to be an optimist and to step up front and centre.

Life IS good because it is always full of potential and possibility.

Quite aside from observing the closure of Ormskirk Mags Court, the triumph of Brexit, the Tory leadership struggles, the difficulties which some folk in the UK appear to have with the principle of democracy when a legitimate vote does not result in the conclusion of their personal choice and other playground-worthy conduct, I have been living my life with joy and interest.

My life is not a rehearsal, so I am getting on whilst others are being distracted from their day-to-day.  Wonderful adventures in Shrewsbury and Ireland have been this month’s particular treatsJ.  What are you choosing to do?

Peace and joy to you as you make the most of the potential and possibilities around you.