Tag Archives: life

Lady General

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Today is the fourth anniversary of my mothers passing. I miss her every day. When going through some old files a few days ago, I came across this letter that I wrote for my mom for her retirement dinner, many years ago. It is not sophisticated, but it does share just a little of how I feel about her.
Lady General –
Thought a lot about what I was going to talk about tonight. It leads me to a nickname my mom has, that ties together experiences of those who have worked with her over the years and those that she raised, her family.
The nickname “General” was given to my mom. If you know my mom I do not even need to explain it to you, she is in control, running the show, leading the troops, anytime she is involved.
I joke with friends I have met over the years, especially those I have met since living away from home, those who do not know my mom. I joke that even in my forties and several hundred miles from home, she can command my attention and get me to do what she wants.
I titled this little story “Lady General” because for a while that was my mother’s AOL screen name, the one she would send me countless chain emails from, you know the kind that tells you if you do not read it and send it to 2500 of your closest friends that you will get hit by a bus tomorrow.
But I picked the title “Lady General” because despite being the General of the family, my mom was and is always a mom, always a lady. She has worked hard for a lot of years, raising four kids, while keeping all of you in line at Crozer. I said to her just yesterday, I still do not know how she raised us and worked, yet still had dinner on the table, and we all sat down and ate together, most nights. I have been a working mother for almost 20 years now, and gave up on trying to do this and just married a man who could cook and was home more than me.
Sometimes when I remember you being there, I remember you barking out orders and making sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to do (aka what you wanted them to do), that is where the general comes in. I always remember you being there, for events, for dinner, sometimes even when I didn’t want you to be there, for that, I will always see you as a Lady, a mother.
Thanks Mom.

The Only Thing Constant is Change

The title of the contribution today is attributed to a Greek Philosopher, Heraclitus.  He is known for his philosophy that everything is constantly in flux, like the flow of a river.  I do not know much about Heraclitus, but I do agree with the idea that change is constant.

I work in an industry where change is necessary to stay ahead of competition, to keep our customers happy, and to stay relevant.  If you are a parent, change is certainly constant in your life; in the blink of an eye your children grow, they change from a dependent child, to an independent adult before you know it.

I could go on and I am sure you could each come up with examples of change.  But by the time we do that, things will have changed, so I will leave it at that and change the topic to me, and my absence from this blog.

It has been about a year and a half since I posted on this blog, and the last post was really just a lame re-post of an earlier entry, so technically it has been almost two years since I have posted an actual entry.

It is going to take more than one entry to go over the last two years of my life, but here are a few highlights –

  • One of my daughters got married
  • One of my daughters got engaged
  • I purchased a home
  • I have started and stopped and started running more than once over the past two years
  • I started hiking, that has been great
  • I got a new puppy
  • Weddings are expensive

That is all for today, I just wanted to get my rhythm back, and keep it light for today.  I am hoping to have enough to say from the past two years and from the day-to-day.

I should, after all, things constantly change :).