Soulful Quotes for Inspiration #11

These quotes were posted on the Barefoot Barn’s community Facebook page. If you’d like to get a daily does of inspiration, “Like” the Facebook page. Right there — to your right!

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

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“The sweetest sounds to mortals given
are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.”
- William Goldsmith Brown

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My mother is a poem
I’ll never be able to write,
though everything I write
is a poem to my mother.
~Sharon Doubiago

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“Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had, and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed.” ~Linda Wooten

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“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman

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“Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy.” – Dean Koontz

Made by tiny hands with love: the best mother’s day gifts

painted pottery from my dear ones

I am that mom today.  The mom who gets home-made gifts from her kiddos.   This is the first time.  And I am beaming.

I held this two pieces of pottery painted by my children, and I instantly treasured them.  I had a flash to the future when my children are grown and out in the world, one morning I wake and go into the cupboard to grab a plate, and I see this plate my two year old made.  And I am taken back to this very moment when she woke up, ran down the stairs, and said, “Mommy, happy mother’s day!” And continued to “help me” unwrap her gift telling me it’s very fragile and the “techniques” she used with her paint brush to get the beautiful swirls.

Another flash into the future:  my five year old son is a grown man, I have just been out in our garden (which, of course, Brian maintains!) and gathered a few of the first spring flowers of the year.  I come back in to look for the perfect vase and I find this one my son made me.  And I pause as I am brought back to this very moment when he told me how he painted it with his favorite color and how he painted the whole thing, even the bottom, and signed his name.

I can see why my mom treasured the hand-made gifts we made for her.  I can see why other moms talk about how the gifts made with tiny and messy hands are absolutely the best mother’s day gifts a mom could imagine.

Today, I am grateful for the privilege to be a mom.  I am awed by the delight in my children’s eyes when they offer me something they made with their tiny hands.  I am in love, gooshy, and so so deeply grateful all over again.