Mother-in-Law's Tongue

I love a mystery, but more than that, I love a mystery-explained.

Today I'd like to unveil the conversation I enjoyed yesterday.

My husband refers to this plant as Mother-in-Law's Tongue. I'm sure it has a proper name, but that's the one I know. Although many of my conversations with my mother-in-law are delightful and interesting, her limited mobility and the laundry list of medications, she manages diligently, keep her focus at home and on the small handful of lovely humans that come and go in and out of her door.

If you have no one actively in your life who is in the age range of 90, it might be easy to misunderstand what I'm saying, but as much as she tries, she has a little trouble...well, keeping track, you might say. And then, she has too much ease at keeping track of some of the things one may wish she could, well, forget.

So, yesterday, while drying my hair, the phone rang. I had been pondering how wonderful it would be if she were able to somehow grasp that I was a full 41 years younger than she and that it would be unreasonable to keep asking me to stop coming and going and doing so much, since that is what people my age do. :-) I felt refreshed after a whole week of rest, and we struck up a delightful conversation about the huge age difference between us...practically a lifetime...and how different her life was at my age. This conversation, for just a bit, focused on the positive, it was full of how wonderful life was when we put our hand to things that interested us and serving others. She shared how she had not had anyone in her life who was in their 90s when she was busy working the garden, caring for their home and raising my husband. She shared that she couldn't imagine being told to "slow down" all the time at that time in her life when it was so critical that she keep moving.

In that moment, she understood my heart when I told her how encouraging it was when she liked to hear our stories and our activities and how hard it was to hear "slow down" all the time. For that moment, even though I know she can't retain it or easily change her worries and woes, we were connected, woman to woman, respectfully sharing and encouraging one another to embrace the positive things in our lives. The glow of light from the window in the middle of this picture, is like that conversation to me. Even though today, she started her conversations with sentences like, "See, you kids have to..." yesterday, we were just two women laughing, empathizing and sharing love.