Happy Birthday, Mom

"Who would you say is the most influential person in your life?"

I hardly hesitated before I responded.

“My mother.” As if there was any other option in the world to choose from. “It’s maybe the cliché and easy answer, but that doesn't make it any less true.”

“And why is your mother the most influential person in your life?”

This elicits more hesitation. I know that she’s the most important person in my life… but why? I finally settle on an answer.

“She loves me well.” I respond.

“And what do you mean by that?”

Here I was on a first date with a boy and these were the questions he was asking me. What DID I mean by that? Is that just the answer that I know is the right answer? Then it dawned on me.

“She does the little things with me. You know those mundane everyday things that you don’t think about. We walk to Panera almost every Saturday, we ride to church together on Sunday and go to Chipotle to talk about the sermon afterwards. She’s just always there for me.”

An epiphany strikes at this moment – those are exactly the things that my mother has always said are the most important things to her. And I realize that I’m becoming my mother, which is great for many a reason.

Let me tell you about Ladelle Lynn Larson, born February 12^th and the same day as honest Abe (fitting due to her disgust for liars). She’s basically Baberaham Lincoln, amirite?

My mother is so much FUN. She’s the type of woman to open her home to a rag tag group of college kids and take them gator shining at two o’clock in the morning. She loves any and all games – as long as she’s the front-runner at all times. Ladelle’s laugh is one unbridled by self-consciousness – if she finds it funny, you’ll know. Even when she knows it’s wildly inappropriate, she’ll let out a momentary laugh and quickly go deadpan and inform you that’s inappropriate. My personal favorite is when you jokingly say something mean and she’ll give you the saddest look, slump her shoulders, and hang her head. I have yet to perfect my impression of this, but golly does it give me the giggles.

My mother is the type of person that is always up to try something new or different. Every time we travel to a new city, we rarely eat at chain restaurants. She marches straight up to the concierge and asks what the recommendations are. The places that might not be on the list of touristy things you NEED to see, but the places that make the city what it is. And while theatre wasn't always something that was on her radar, when her daughter (that would be me) moved home after college she bought season tickets to the theatre’s tour of Broadway shows. She’ll also wake you up at the crack of dawn to drive up to DeLeon Springs, getting lost a few times along the way, just so we could rent a canoe, walk some trails, and eat at the mill where you make your own breakfast on the griddle at your table.

My mother is also the best human example I have of patience, self-sacrifice, and love. I know this partially because I see the people she chooses to spend time on - people that can be tiresome, overwhelming, and difficult to love. I mostly know this because of how she interacts with me. I was a difficult teenager, subjecting my family to experience a loved one in the bottomless pit of depression. Yet my mother decided to love me relentlessly, despite my best efforts to douse that fire. Decided is the best way to put it, because when it’s difficult to love someone it isn't possible to passively love them. She made the conscious effort to love ME when I was doing all I could to tear everyone around me down. Still to this day when I come home with a tattoo or a nose piercing, she decides to love the person I am and the heart that I have. And for this, I am ever so grateful.

All of this to say, happy birthday to my favorite lady. Thank you for being an example of a Godly woman. Because of you I am immeasurably blessed. Love you – to infinity and beyond.