As maybe most people in the world claim, I will also join the choir and say that my mother is the best mother in the world. I stand by it; she is the best mother in the world if you ask me. I know it may sound egoistic and selfish but as far as the course of my life is concerned, I want to give credit where it is due. So I am giving credit to my mother.
The Scientist
My mother is a scientist, a well accomplished one at it. She used to sit my siblings and I in front of a tiny whiteboard in the kitchen and walk us through every line in the science textbooks, often demonstrating with products that she would pull out of the kitchen cupboards. She was like a magician. Science textbooks came to life and none of us needed to learn by heart why the equation of photosynthesis is the way that it is. As a scientist and a woman of unparalleled vision, I guess it is no surprise that one of her favorite books is “The Alchemist.” I think she draws a lot of things from her readings and it may be just coincidental, but she is like a real-life alchemist, one that manages to create real life scenarios out of thin air. Of course, that is what it seems like, unless you are around her and see the unwavered dedication that goes into those ideas to bring them to life. So if you are an outsider, you might think she is a magician.
The Talent
My mother picked up the accordion when she was a very young girl, strongly encouraged by her father. She still has her accordion to this day and it usually comes out of its box unexpectedly and I love that part. She is in the mood, she plays it; it is as simple as that but that spontaneity that comes along with it makes for a great spectacle. Sometimes it is on birthdays, other times when someone in the house starts singing a song and she follows you around with her accordion so your lyrics do not feel lonely. And most of the time, she is the one singing around the house, a folk song one day, Edith Piaf the other, on occasion we will hear Pavarotti. Needless to say, she speaks a multitude of languages, most of them self-learned.
The Philanthropist
When I think of accomplished woman, I am always drawn to read more about their philanthropy work. I have somehow planted this idea in my head that any woman that is accomplished and has built a name for herself, is somehow always involved in philanthropy work. Of those women, my mom is right up there. Not many people might know of her, but her community certainly does. She has an unmatched will and dedication to give back to her community. Her ideas are from a different universe, so ahead of time and sometimes so abstract that she needs to brew them in her head and then spill them out into something we can better grasp. She patiently weaves the people and the idea into one and slowly makes these giant baskets that everyone wants to jump into. That’s a talent and will and above all, an understanding of what the person standing next to her might need a hand with today.
The woman has sailed some turbulent waters during her life, from living in extreme poverty to surviving through a war and many disappointments along the way, but she still stands. She is like the atom in Lavoisier’s Law of Conservation of Mass where it only cycles among chemical compounds but it is not created nor destroyed. Or maybe just the latter because she has been evolving her whole life like any of us do but she sure is not destroyed.
She’s the woman we all need in our lives, the one with a heart so big that there is room for everyone.
Originally published at https://vocal.media.
