for my mother

Kipling once said that God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers. I truly believe that mothers are archangels commanded by God to take good care of kiddo angels like you and me.

I was not expected by my parents, therefore I was always an exception of the family.

My mother worked very hard to support the family, sometimes she had to go to another city for job training; while she was away, I felt terribly lonely.

When my mother finally realized that she no longer could take care of me so she found a nanny for me. Nanny was an old lady she had enormous patience, which was something that my mother did not have for me.

What was the best memory of my childhood? It was nanny. She allowed me to do everything I'd like to do. She never set rules for me. There was no whatsoever boundary.

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. -Fred Rogers-

Nanny was from China northern rural village. She had small bound feet and extremely heavy accent that made her very hard to communicate with people but that did not bother me. I understood her perfectly.

One thing bothered my mother very much was that I didn't bathe as much as I should, mother complained that to my father but not a single time did my father utter.

Nanny loved me as her own daughter. She loved me and pampered me. I am forever grateful that she took good care of me - especially when my parents were away from home.

A lot of us grow up and we grow out of the literal interpretation that we get when we're children, but we bear the scars all our life. Whether they're scars of beauty or scars of ugliness, it's pretty much in the eye of the beholder. -Stephen King-

I was never a happy child after my mother decided to take me away from nanny and sent me to daycare. I was sensitive and melancholy to the new environment. I actually cried a lot through that phase.

I remember there was a time that many friends of my mother's would come to our house; and they had girls' talk, after that they would order food from exquisite Chinese restaurant. Those days made me very happy.

My mother cared about our health so much that almost every time she would get mad if I had ice cream from street vendor. She tried to cook for us everyday, and normally it took her several hours to get the meal ready. One thing I remember vividly was we always had fish on the table, no matter what, that interested me because my mother came from the Northern Capital of China, it amazed me because most people there do not serve seafood every meal, but I was lucky that my mother would always try to do her best to provide us the best protein source.

Daycare life was never easy for me, I would cry nearly whole day and Ms. Seto was very upset about it. When after-school program began I couldn't wait for my mother to pick me up, but then I was almost the last one to leave.

I had a great appetite for books. I remember Stephen King once said that books are a uniquely portable magic, I couldn't agree more for books helped me get through awful a lot of loneliness during my solitary childhood.

A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller. -Paul Klee-

A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn't play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly. -Pablo Neruda-

I actually wasn't good at anything. Neither drawing nor writing was my strong point, but my mother had a special talent for calligraphy. She used to correct my scrawled handwriting with a red pen; she would circle out all the slanting characters and made me rewrite them again. It wasn't fun.

It is the mind which creates the world around us, and even though we stand side by side in the same meadow, my eyes will never see what is beheld by yours, my heart will never stir to the emotions with which yours is touched. -George Gissing-

My mother was a good reader. She paid little attention of what or how we read, and so I was always lying in bed with a book in hands. Later on that casual indulgence paid off - I got a pair of glasses.

You must be a lotus, unfolding its petals when the sun rises in the sky, unaffected by the slush where it is born or even the water which sustains it! -Shirdi Sai Baba-

Each of us has his own rhythm of suffering. -Roland Barthes-

Memory in youth is active and easily impressible; in old age it is comparatively callous to new impressions, but still retains vividly those of earlier years. -Charlotte Bronte-

My hair was very long when I was little. I don’t quite remember if I ever had it cut. My father would always ask my mother not to, so every morning she would ask me to sit down quietly and braid it into three interlaced strands. I was not happy because all my friends had their hair down and I thought it was beautiful.

I remember Picasso once commented that it took him eighty years to paint like a child, so I assumed every child paints, except me. I was not fond of art at all. I remember my mother bought me a lot of crayons and paper; alas, I nearly turned blue.

Ha, music. I told my mother that I hate music but my mother made me go to the music lessons anyway. She just ignored me. She made me do things that I don't think I'd ever want to do.

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. -Bob Marley-

I have the heart of a man, not a woman, and I am not afraid of anything. -Elizabeth I-

Sometimes reading could be dreadful, especially when you were pushed to or you don't feel want to.

I wish I had a sister that way I won't feel so terribly lonely because she could be there for me through everything.

One of my mother’s favorite things to do was to sit us in the front yard after dark and to tell us her beloved ghost stories. The consequence? I’d stay up all night and dare not to blink.

Kids dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music. -William Stafford-

My father died when I was very young and it was hard for my mother because she had to work hard to raise kids; she had to be a mother and a father for us. Isn’t Eleanor Roosevelt once said that a woman is like a tea bag, you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water. I think my mother was just like that.

Work on the accent, it will enliven the whole. -Pierre Bonnard-

One is not born a woman, but becomes one. -Simone de Beauvoir-

Become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid. -Lady Bird Johnson-

My mother suffered from depression for almost all her life. Sometimes she would say something harsh to me, other time she would throw some curses to me too. As a young child those hurtful experiences were hard for me to digest. And this unhappy memory was very insufferable for me.

But if somebody dies, if something happens to you, there is a normal process of depression, it is part of being human, and some people view it as a learning experience. -Bob Geldof-

. . . for there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes. -Milan Kundera-

My mother chose to end her life in her final days. I was there with her the night before she passed away. I saw her fear in her eyes, the fear of unknown. I was quite ready to accept her decision, but then I didn’t realize that it was so hard for me to let her go. I told her that I will still be her daughter next time, and together we are going to have a very happy life.

Open yourself to love Love does not criticize, love builds Love is strong, its strength cannot be defeated It regenerates itself Take refuge in love. -Inkarri-