The other day, I listened to a digitized version of a recording from about 55 years ago. Back then, I had turned on my little reel-to-reel tape recorder to pick up the sounds of life in the McInnis household while some of my parents’ friends were over. In the voices, I heard Mrs. Perkins, a good friend of the family, my sister and a woman with a very Southern accent. Tears formed. It was mom. I had not recalled the sound of her voice as clearly and deeply as my memories of how she made me feel, that is, loved unconditionally.

It has been said by many, in various eloquent ways, that people won’t remember what you said as much as how you made them feel. Though moms dispense all sorts of important words of wisdom (do you remember my Listen to Life of several years titled “Mothers Say?”), it is how those words make us feel and how their actions make us feel that we celebrate on Mother’s Day.

I have cited often in this blog that my mom’s epitaph reads “A tender mother and a faithful friend.” Those sentiments were not borne in anything I recall her saying or in my memory of the sound of her voice; they were earned in how she made her kids feel.

To all mothers – past, present and future – thank you for those positive, encouraging, caring, loving feelings that you have created in the hearts, minds and memories of your children.