My mom’s birthday was last week and my sister and I gave her one of the best gifts (in my opinion). For any special occasion – birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Diwali, White elephant parties, we are conditioned to give things as gifts. With society becoming more materialistic and with the introduction of hundreds of products, we inevitably fall into the trap of giving physical gifts. The more expensive the gift, the more we love!
But I’ll write about my views on our materialistic society in another post. This post is about the awesome gift my sister and I gave our mom.
Letters to My Mom. I found this in a store as I randomly wandered in midtown one day and I absolutely fell in love with the concept. I always tell my mom “I love you” but haven’t taken the time to tell her all the ways in which I admire her. Writing these letters to her gave me a chance to reflect on my relationship with my mom and express to her what I love about her, what she’s taught me, and reflect on the qualities I want to develop in myself.
So with that in mind… here’s what I learned from my mom.
From you I learned the importance of…
Strength. Of resilience. Our family has gone through a lot over the years. We’ve had some good years and some challenging ones. I remember the recent struggles but I know you’ve experienced a lot of challenging times in the past, which I am glad I was too young to remember.
You have emerged through these times a stronger person. You did not let these events dictate your life. You hung in there. “Strapped on your boots” as they say and did whatever it took to survive. And this is what I have learned from you. Mom, you always tell me “this too shall pass.” While I don’t always believe it as my emotions get a strong hold of me, it is absolutely true. I know a little from experience now.
Mom, you are a resilient and capable woman who has held this family together and shown Roshni and I that you cannot let life get you down. You have to power through the difficult times, believe that they will pass. And they will pass.
I hope that I took can become stronger and more resilient. Learn to live life with the belief that everything will be okay because I can handle whatever comes my way. Thank you mom for being a great example and for embodying this quality. I love you!
(Hopefully my mom doesn’t mind me sharing this publicly).
These words are what I hope my kids say about me one day. Strength and resiliency is what I am working on right now as I cope with all the change in my life. Re-reading this letter makes me realize the words were more of a reminder for me than anything else. I’m just grateful that I have an example I can look up to.
The next time you want to give a gift to a loved one, write a letter instead.