My Mother was the most philanthropic, innovative, entrepreneurial, missions-minded, others-oriented, generous, visionary woman I have ever known! She was energetic, tireless, creative, and full of life! She lived life like an exclamation mark! Always on mission! Always for others! She was an eager, constant learner. She was always, as Longfellow states, "up and doing, with a heart for any fate"! Marching into the future, whatever future that was. When she got knocked down, she would spring right back up! Nothing held her back----not even her mistakes and regrets, weaknesses and inadequacies. She was full throttle---right up to the end! Mother reminds me of those blow up characters that have sand in the bottom. You punch them, and they bounce right back up! She was a true Enthusiast and lived life Full-E!
Because of her enthusiasm and energy for life, she attracted many incredible people. I still have close contact with an array of wholehearted, brilliant, God-and-people-loving friends of Mother's who helped shape me and continue to encourage me! I am grateful!
Everything Mother did (which was just about everything!) she did wholeheartedly and entirely! A few things that stand out to me: She started a food co-op with our friends, so we could buy good food in bulk at better prices. This was in the early 80s, before Whole Foods was everywhere. We had a small Beans & Grains storefront where we lived in Des Moines, but Mother wanted the best foods AND the best prices, so she created Feasting Naturally Food Coop and we ordered from Blooming Prairie Warehouse in Omaha, Nebraska.
As soon as she learned about home schooling from some friends, she plunged into research, decided this was the way to go, and jumped in with both feet---she started home schooling my brother and me at the same time she helped spearhead the statewide Iowa Home Educators Association, putting us at the forefront of activity in Iowa and in the middle of the modern-day "home schooling movement" overnight. This was in 1983, when I was 10 and my brother was 5. She was passionate and pro-active from day one! She managed a congressional campaign. She served as an assistant to the attorney general of Iowa. She started a law practice when we moved back to Arkansas, and her focus became representing truck drivers. She got her CDL and drove truck! Her handle was "Lady Lawyer" and everyone loved her! She was always up for adventure! These are just some of the outstanding "things" Mother did "along the way" --she was a trailblazer and I am grateful for her "take the bull by the horns" approach to life.
Mother's life was not easy, but she knew how to weather a storm, and come out swinging and singing! She was always looking for the onward and upward way in life, and she lived with so much HOPE. I have a little framed needlepoint that I got from my friend Ruthie which has become one of my favorite possessions. It simply states, "We are Hopers" and I cherish it because my Mother taught me, by the way she lived her life, to always HOPE.
"Count it all joy!" she must've said a a hundred thousand times, as quoting James 1 was her response to any disappointment or challenge. Life is filled with both. Mother knew much heartache in her life. Her suffering only served to make her sweeter and more determined. She lived as Paul states, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Her life and example were such a gift.
I cannot tell you about Mother without sharing A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. When I was 15 and my brother was 10, she had us memorize this when we were on a winter road trip. She had known these words for years, and she lived them every day. I wish you could hear HER recite this! This was her-exactly! and you could feel it when she spoke these words:
A Psalm of Life BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem!
Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world’s broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act,— act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o’erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.
