I know most of us on this blog site have been focused on issues of not eating meat and the details of war and torture. Oh well, this is not going to be one of those blogs.
I am happy to say that I am not on call, not needing to carry a beeper. Most of my families will have a hard time tracking me down this weekend. However Modesto is small enough that I manage to see many of my families in the park, at the store or even at a light.
I've been one of those Mama types for a little over seven years. One of those experiences definitely fertile ground for spiritual growth. Being a single mom in a community with many two parent households has been a challenge.
Yesterday, I was the sappy,sentimental mom at my son's school. His class performed "Froggy goes a Courtin' " and "I love you foreever" ( probably the sappiest children's book of all time- they did it with song and signing). However this mama was enchanted and touched afterwards by my son walking up to me and asking me to a luncheon. The kids made lunch for their moms and themselves. Knowing my child was capable of making more than a peanut butter sandwich touched me deeply.
I treasure being a mom and all that goes with it. The runny noses, hurt feelings, little sucesses and school projects. It's only the end of first grade but we have weathered writing small books, innumerable spelling test practices (last week's hardest words were "estivation" and "camouflage") and now the big diorama project. After Monday, I hope to never read another episode of "Frog and Toad."
Anyway, Mother's day has it's roots in the peace movement- the first one celebrated as a "Mother's Strike" against war during WWI. I celebrate Mother's Day not for the card and the gifts rather for the blessings of having a young person in my life. Mamaship also has it's priveleges. Who else gets to say, "why 'cause I said so" or "uh huh, I told you so" at least once an hour?
Snapping to yet another Caribbean party... Roast pig two weeks in a row...I am a happy camper.
Dr. Mimi
P.S.( I'm culturally one of those folks who eats all the pig except the oink. Don't even try to make me a vegetarian. I've been veggie only type in the past. These days I am happily omnivorous--pooping and peeing nicely as well)
Posted by drmimi at May 8, 2004 02:36 PMMy son is very athletic at 7. He does Tae Kwon Do, plays soccer, basketball and is an incredible hula hooper and jump roper. Swimming happens in these parts when the temp outside goes above 100 F (very soon). He learned to swim last summer.
I also have asthma along with much of the Central Valley. We have horrible air and a lot of smokers. I find I do a lot better with exercise (except on those high pollen or spare the air days).
I spend a large chunk of my time in my pediatric practice working with asthmatics- something I love to do as the kids and families do better with exercise and treatment.
n.b. to Rev Ryuei and Jussi-- if a mama can be a full time doctor and a single parent, I don't think becoming a priest would be so hard. It would definitely cut down on all those multiple around the clock calls:).
Posted by: Dr. Mimi at May 11, 2004 07:15 PMMimi; If your son is suffering from asthma...get him swimming. I understand people have been able to achieve great results as far as asthma is concerned doing just that...something about swimming building up lungs.well.you're the doctor...
Best, Jussi.
Mike; lol.a great point!
Just the innate programmed sexism in me that was talking there I guess. I totally stand corrected!
Best, Jussi.
Jussi -
"In my next life if I do not come back as a priest of Nichiren Shoshu I want to come back as a mother." Just curious, why not both?
Namaste, Engyo Mike Barrett
Posted by: Engyo Mike Barrett at May 11, 2004 05:21 AMThanks both for your reply.
We so far have made our own pigs (stuffed socks), written chapter books. This month's theme is the ocean. Teacher has mentioned something about creating a "tidepool" with the children adding all sorts of ersatz creatures. Short human has had daily homework since the beginning of kindergarten (part of Uncle Bush's "Leave all children behind campaign."
I don 't think kids repay their debts of gratitude until they have offspring of their own (or some other facismile). Grandparents seem to have that special smile when their own children confront parenting. It's the big payback in my family for sure.
Back to sleep... (finally after 7 years I am not nursing-son breastfed until nearly three, giving respiratory treatments for asthma or dealing with those night time boogie monsters)
Posted by: Dr. Mimi at May 11, 2004 01:26 AMHello Mimi; What a heartwarming post. In my next life if I do not come back as a priest of Nichiren Shoshu I want to come back as a mother.
It i simpossible for us men to fully understand all that a mother goes through yet I am sure most of us have an idea.
I will put here a lengthy quote about the debt of gratitude we owe to our parents (fathers also).
It is from a sermon called "The Significance of Making Offerings to Benefit the Deceased" given by a Nichiren Shoshu Priest and I feel it gives a good analysis of this debt which is after all one the four debts of gratitude (sorry it is quite long...):
Regarding the first of these, the debt owed to one's parents, it is to one's parents that one owes one's existence. Because of this, out of all living beings, here is no one to whom we owe a greater debt than to our parents.
It is often said that it is only after one becomes a parent oneself that one comes to understand how much one owes one's parents. As anyone who has become a parent knows, becoming a parent rekindles one's sense of gratitude toward one's parents regarding the following two points. First, one comes to understand the selfless, pure love a parent feels for his or her own child. This feeling that one's beloved child is so precious and dear is not a calculated or self‑interested feeling. People will risk their own lives to protect their children. Parents desire to help their children so strongly that they will even risk accumulating bad karma for themselves in order to do so. Thus, when people become parents they feel a violently strong, loftily pure love for their child. This brings forth the realization that their own parents must have raised them with this same kind of noble love, and with this realization, a renewed feeling of gratitude wells forth.
Secondly, when people become parents they understand the immense perseverance required of parents. Babies are tyrants. They selfishly cry out with no regard as to whether or not it is the middle of the night, and will not stop crying until they receive the help that will satisfy them. Regardless of how tired she may be, until the baby stops crying a parent must keep trying to figure out what the baby wants and try to provide it. When people become parents they understand the great patience needed to raise children and realize that their own parents must have raised them with this same perseverance. This makes them feel deeper gratitude for their own parents' love.
The Bumo Onju Kyo (Sutra on the Great Debt Owed to One's Parents), enumerates the following ten kinds of debts one owes ones parents.
No. 1: The children owe their mother for protecting them during pregnancy A mother constantly protects the child in her womb. We owe a debt of gratitude for this. One's mother experienced labor pains in order to give birth. We owe a debt of gratitude for this.
No. 2. The Children owe their mother for the suffering she experienced during childbirth one’s mother experienced labor pains in order to give birth. We owe a debt of gratitude for this.
No. 3: The children owe their mother for forgetting the above distress after childbirth When a mother first sees her newborn, she is filled with joy, forgetting all the suffering she endured up until that point. We owe a debt of gratitude for this.
No. 4: The children owe their mother for nourishing them with her milk. A mother raises and nourishes her infant by giving it her milk. We owe a debt of gratitude for this.
No. 5: The children owe their parents for sleeping in wet places in order that the children may sleep in dry places. Parents will sleep in a wet place themselves in order to give their child a dry place to sleep. We owe a debt of gratitude for this.
No. 6: The children owe their parents for cleaning up unclean things.
Parents clean up their infants' bodily wastes. We owe a debt of gratitude for this.
No. 7: The children owe their parents for swallowing what is bitter and giving up what is sweet
Parents will eat unpleasant foods in order to give delicious foods to their children. We owe a debt of gratitude for this.
No. 8: The children owe their parents for creating bad karma for the children’s' sake. A parent will willingly create bad karma and fall into hell for a child's happiness. We owe a debt of gratitude for this.
No. 9: The children owe their parents for thinking of children who have traveled far away
A parent will continuously wish for a child's safety when the child makes a long journey. We owe a debt of gratitude for this.
No. 10: The children owe parents for their deep concern.
Whether he or she is living or has passed away, the children owe their mother for the parent always longs for a child's safety and happiness. suffering she experienced during childbirth We owe a debt of gratitude for this. These ten acts are things parents do readily, without a sense of hardship, because of their wholehearted love for their children. When it comes to the parents who showered one with this noble love, the way to behave in a moral fashion as a human being is to want to repay one's debt to ones parents and to act accordingly.
(source Shinyo Feb 1996 you can read the whole sermon at http://www.proudblackbuddhist.org/Benefit%20Of%20The%20Deceased.htm )
Best, Jussi.
Mimi, Congratulations on your happy Mother's Day! Let us know if the diorama drives you to the brink of insanity (it's only the first in a long line of dioramas to come - he he, ho ho . . .)
And, just think, you've got the Covered Wagon Project, the Science Fair, and innumerable Christmas Plays all to come!
Being a parent is grand!
Cheers! - Melanie
Posted by: Melanie Supersano at May 10, 2004 03:42 PM