My Mother

My mother. She has known the ultimate happiness. She has lived the ultimate tragedy and devastation.

Throughout her life she has touched others with her magic. She is exceptional. Her ability to empathize is exquisite.
Her human touch is tender yet strong and absolute.

My father was the love of her life for 30 years. Together they created four daughters. She loved her parents and his parents. She is devoted to her sister and brother. She got her sons as sons-in-law. She added to our life a wonderful stepfather and his four daughters. She is by all standards the heart of a large extended family.

Relatives, friends and everyone she meets adore her. Her advice is asked often. She listens and touches others' hearts with hers.

She is a naturally gifted story teller. She loves to tell her stories, some of which are her greatest treasures. And people love to listen. They are mesmerized by her.

She has taken the profound happiness she has known and the profound loss she has lived and has made her way with dignity, faith and raw, overwhelming courage. Her womanhood is exemplary, a model her daughters have been nourished by.

My mother. She gave me life and shares her being in everyway one can love. My Mother.

Are You Real?????

I just finished a conversation with the phone operator at Nordstroms. Yes, I said the phone operator. Like the thousands before me the first words I asked her were "are you a real person?" I did not try to hide my glee. She laughed and answered "yes".

She told me she gets asked that question several hundred times a day. She continued to tell me the comments and stories of gratitude expressed to her by callers who have braced themselves for the automated prompts that often require a manual and an hour out of one's day. How often do we complete that process only to be put on hold and then inadvertently disconnected. And we must try again and again because "they" have what we need on the other end wherever that is.

A real person to talk to at a department store. Like the old days but today one of life's rare treasures. And we are so grateful. And that is so sad.

The technological advances are stunning and exciting but they have dehumanized us and starved us for human contact and connection.

To feel you struck gold because you are speaking to a live operator has an ironic twist to the so-called technological progress we live with in all aspects of our daily operations.

The world moves toward wonderful options such as my reaching you through this computer and this blog. However, in our daily lives, the isolation from the human on the other end is a price that may be costly beyond our imagination.