The young mother set her foot on the
path of life. "Is this the long way?" she asked.
And the guide said, "Yes, and the way is hard.
You will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning."
But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that
anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, gathered
flowers for them along the way, she fed them,
and bathed them in the clear streams. The sun shone on them, and the young mother cried,
"Nothing will ever be lovelier than this."
Then the nights came, and the storms, and the path was sometimes
dark. The children shook with fear and cold. The mother drew
them close and covered them with her mantle. The children said,"Oh, Mother, we are not
afraid, for you are near and no harm can come to us."And the mother said, "This is better than the
brightness of day, for I have taught my children courage."
Then morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the mother and her children
climbed it and grew weary. She would frequently tell the children,
"Keep your patience because we are alsmost there." So the children climbed, and when
they reached the top, they said, "Mother, we could not have done it without you."
When the mother lay down at night, she looked up at the stars and thought,
"This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude
in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today I have given them strength."
The next day, strange clouds appeared which darkened the earth ... clouds of war, hate,
and evil. As the children groped and stumbled, the mother said, "Look up! Lift your
eyes to the light!" The children looked. They saw above the clouds, an everlasting glory, and it guided
them beyond the darkness. That night, the mother said, "This is the best day of all,
for I have shown my children God."
And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the mother grew old
and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage.
And when the way was rough, they lifted her for she was as light as a feather; and at last
they came to a hill, and beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide.
And mother said: "I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know the end is better
than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them."
The children said, "You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone
through the gates."
They stood and watched her as she went on alone. The gates closed after her.
The children said, "We cannot see her, but she is still with us. A mother like ours
is more than a memory. She is a living presence.
Our mother is always with us. She's the whisper of the leaves as we walk down the street.
She's the smell of bleach in our freshly laundered socks. She's the cool hand on our
brow when we're not feeling well.
Our Mother lives inside our laughter. She's crystallized in every tear drop we shed.
She's the place we came from ... our first home. She's the map we follow with every
step we take.
She's our first love and our first heartbreak, and nothing on earth can
separate us from her ... Not time ... not space ... not even death!"
~ Temple Bailey ~
© 1933