On Motherhood

Well, it's that time of year again. Mother's Day may just be an over commercialized way to sell flowers and cards full of cheesy prose, but it does remind us to pause and give thought concerning where we came from.

"Youth fades; love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope
outlives them all." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

For all intents and purposes, your mother is singlehandedly responsible for your existence. Call it a blessing or call it biology, either way we all popped out of someone else's torso. Like some strange, gooey Matryoshka doll, we all emerged with the world our oyster. In and of itself, that's quite an accomplishment.

"My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother.
I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical
education I received from her." -- George Washington

The first five years are a blur. None of us remember much from our birth years. Maybe a bad dream, a birthday, or that moment where we barely opened our eyes as our father's carried us off to bed. Yet for our parents those years hold the most valuable memories. Memories of us from a time when we were perfect, innocent, and needed them the most.

" Who is it that loves me and will love me forever with an affection which no
chance, no misery, no crime of mine can do away? — It is you, my mother."--
Thomas Carlyle

Now, our lives are our own. We make our choices. Some stayed, some left. Many of us, myself included, have families of our own. Our lives branch out infinitely, splitting our focus and our priorities to ensure continued growth. We try our best to make sure we work toward a positive future, while not relegating our past to time forgotten. Trying to remember family and old friends, while raising families and making new friends, is never an easy thing.

"I think my life began with waking up and loving my mother's face."-- George
Eliot

All the while, our mother's one focus in life was to ensure that our happiness in all things preceded her own. Even in the countless situations where she knew the outcome of our naivety, she watched knowingly, giving us the chance to learn from our mistakes.

"Making the decision to have a child-it's momentous. It is to decide forever to
have your heart go walking around outside your body." --Elizabeth Stone

Truth be told, they aren't always perfect. I've lost many a fight to the trump card of motherhood, many a fight that under any other circumstances I would win. At the end of the day there are few things I wouldn't do once she plays the mother card.

"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." -- Lin Yutang

Now some may not fall so easily in to this honored category. Some may be unknown to us, some have passed, and some seem like they're out to ruin our lives. But love or hate, you are always hard pressed to identify someone in your life who has more to do with who you are than your mother, whether because of her or in spite of her.

"All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother."-- Abraham Lincoln

So thanks Mom, and thanks to all mothers. Without you there would be no me. And since I'm pretty fond of this existence, I owe you quite a bit. Enjoy your day, it's the least we can do.

Sorry about the morning sickness,
Jimmy

The Weekend Cometh

Well, here we go into another weekend. After work today it's off to the house for some much needed family time. Tomorrow it's more of the same as I return to work a half a day or so, since I took Wednesday off for those Children's Concerts and to run my laundry list of errands. After work I'm off to play with the LCSO for the family concerts, basically the same as the Children's Concerts but open to the public with cheap tickets. Prior to the concert we'll do a petting zoo for instruments, where the kids and hold and play with the instruments. No playing the wind instruments this year due to Porkatosis spreading around, but it's still a great way for the kids to interact with the instruments and ensures we'll have replacements someday when we go to that big rehearsal in the sky.

Tomorrow night, a whole lot of nothing.

Sunday of course is Mother's Day. So I'll save my sappy emotional material until then. Plans are take out mom and dad to see Star Trek, while Crystal and Caitlyn head over to her grandmother's house to celebrate there. We'll meet up in the middle, do some dinner, and then probably sit around, sip on some coffee, and shoot the shit. Maybe on Saturday I can do something for Crystal, since Sunday is already pretty full with family. I'm not sure what yet, but I'll think of something.

The rest of the month is shaping up to be rather uneventful. Concerts with the Juarez Symphony have been shifted to June due to Mad Sow Disease, so my workload has shifted a bit. We'll probably hit up the Southern New Mexico Wine Festival over Memorial Day weekend. I'll have a 3 day weekend so it should be a whole lot of fun. Let me know if you need me to ship you over a bottle or two of New Mexico's finest. Please abstain if expecting, you know who you are.

More to come,

Jimmy

A Week in the Life 20 - A Case of the Mondays

Another weekend come and another exciting week ahead. Today is ho hum. It's Monday and I'm a bit on the sleepy side, but I'll get to that later.

While we're on tangents here, do you ever look ahead at your week and try to pinpoint chunks of time when you might be able to catch up on sleep? I see the future and little lines shoot out at specific moments like connecting stars in a constellation, mapping my zzzz's like some distant cosmic event. I see naps this evening as a possibility, think Wednesday afternoon perhaps, maybe Thursday night... who knows.


But back to reality, I'm sure none of us really gets as much sleep as we'd like. That's what death is for. Soon will I rest, yes, forever sleep. Earned it I have.

Last weekend was the final season subscription concert for the Las Cruces Symphony. That officially marks the end of my fourteenth season with the Symphony. This week we'll be playing our Children / Family concerts. We round up all the 5th graders from all of Las Cruces' elementary schools on Wednesday morning, bus them in, and play three concerts in a row. It's a great opportunity for us to reach out to the community and provides some insight for those children who are about to undertake an instrument of their own. On Saturday we play a family concert at 3pm as well. Families can bring their children for the concert and the kids can hold and see all the instruments to get a better feel for them.

This weekend also marks the release of the revamped Star Trek franchise. On Sunday I'll be taking my parents out to see the movie. It is a fine coincidence that Sunday is Mother's Day, as my mother is a huge Star Trek buff so it's an easy gift.

At some point this week I'll finish up my online class, get an oil change, get a haircut, and apply for a Passport card to enable travel to Mexico come June. Somewhere in between I'll be hanging out with Caitlyn and Crystal, watching the NBA playoffs, finishing Children's Week, and hopefully adding a couple of posts.


Busy busy busy.


Oh yeah.. I said I'd get back to the "I'm sleepy" thing later. So, um, yeah. I'm sleepy.


So have a great week, and best of luck in all your endeavours.
Jimmy

P.S. Still not dead of swine flu, and still eating bacon like it's breathing air.