This month’s topic is sharing a special memory of your mother. My mother had three sayings in particular which I remember:

1. More can be bought.
2. Don’t try to be something you aren’t.
3. No one person is important enough to make everyone around them miserable.

I heard “more can be bought” when I was upset that someone else ate the last candy bar, or my sister drew on one of my Barbies or gave them unwanted haircuts, or similar situations. As a child, I heard “more will be bought,” assumed the item in question was now at the top of the shopping list, and got disappointed if it wasn’t quickly replaced. Now I realize “more can be bought” really meant “it’s just stuff.” The really important things in life can’t be bought. It’s amazing what a few years’ time does for your perspective.

“Don’t try to be something you aren’t” is a gem I heard more from my mother in my adult life, and it meant different things in different circumstances. If friends invited us all to a nice restaurant, or a professional baseball game, and I knew we would have trouble paying the electric bill if we went (even though we wanted to), my mom would say, “Don’t try to be something you aren’t.” My mom used it for herself when she was invited to do things with friends or family that she realistically wasn’t physically able to do. Unfortunately, this was the situation the last several years of her life. For her it meant “Don’t try to be a healthy person.”

I think “No one person is important enough to make everyone around them miserable” speaks for itself, although we sometimes said we thought we’d met people who thought they were that person.

If you post a special memory of your mother, please link your post to my Mr. Linky!