My mom, Maddy, bends like an oak. Get the picture? She has always been, hands down, the most inflexible person I've known. Black or white, soft or hard, up or down, in or out …that’s Maddy. To round things off; or should I say to square them off in her totally rigid structure, she holds a grudge longer than the seven mile bridge in the Florida Keys. Maddy doesn’t forget anything. She parks offenses neatly into the garage that is her 85 year-old memory and stores them there until she needs one then puts it square on the front seat, buckles it in, revs the engine and burns rubber. She thinks nothing about churning up situations that occurred more than 60 years ago and rehashing outcomes especially if they didn’t go her way; no memory loss there.
I didn’t inherit mom’s inflexibility! I’m the ultimate willow. I bend with the breeze and grow from every experience. For me, it's options open at all times. Heck, I was married 26 years, divorced 16 and just remarried at the age of 61!
Mom's and my differences here don’t change our relationship. In fact, they keep the relationship strong. She rehashes and I listen. Why? Simple, I recognize she could be leading the Electric Slide today and pushing up daisies tomorrow.
I noticed a bend in the oak recently. There were little things at first and then yesterday...bam! She called me out of the blue and announced, “I decided to put all the issues from the past behind me.”
“Why mom,” I asked.
“Life is just too short,” she said.
What are you waiting for?
