My brunch with Mom

Took my mother to the Mother's Day champagne buffet in my hometown. We had a lovely time … two trips to the buffet each, plus dessert. Since my mom can't drink anymore, I got both mimosas. They took some of the discomfort out of being back in my hometown. (It is, after all, the place I fled.)

My mother is a very happy woman, very content with her life. She's "lunch mom" four days a week at the local grade school, but with summer looming she's fixating on her yard. She is very serious about her garden and proudly showed off all the plants my younger sister's family got her for Mother's Day yesterday. She loves the Chicago Bulls and is stoic through their playoff bid this year. She dotes on her cats. She was effusive about a new shampoo she bough from Home Shopping.

I don't want to copy my mother, because her life seems very small to me. But I do wish to emulate her in terms of how peaceful she is with her life and her choices. She epitomizes that saying about, "It's better to want what you have than to have what you want." In that way, she's a most excellent role model.