A touching and beautifully made video that will undoubtedly touch any Mother’s heart. A perfect video to share for both Mother and child for this upcoming Mother’s Day.
Miss you, Mom…this is for you.
Mother’s Day is May 10 ~~~ A Tribute to my Mother
*I initially posted this tribute quite a while back. In honor of Mother’s Day coming up on May 10, I’m re-posting. Miss you, Mom.
~~~~~~~
Thoughts about my Mom… If your Mother is living when you read this, enjoy the moments you have with her. My Mom passed away not long ago and left a huge gaping hole in our very small family. She truly was the ‘rock’ who was a positive influence in our lives. She was very young at heart and seeing her at 76, one would never guess her to be over about sixty years old.
My mother was in perpetual motion. Many times I expressed to her that I wished I had her energy. And this was when she was living with leukemia in a dormant stage. She was diagnosed fifteen years ago and yet was able to live life fully and exactly as she pleased until the very end. Although she could sometimes be soft at the edges, she was strong at the center.
Those who knew my mom always remember her for her zest for life, her great smile and her fun and gregarious personality. There wasn’t much that could get her down. Whatever the dilema, she’d simply shake it off and forge ahead.
Unbelievably, at seventy-six years old, she still worked FULL time on her feet with leukemia in the Cashier’s Cage at the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas. I also previously worked that job and I know from experience how hard and demanding the job is. Not only are you bombarded constantly by customers, but you’re also tossing around very heavy bags of coin while tripping over co-workers in the very small space. At her funeral, the casino owner spoke and said that her smile would just light up the whole room and he commented on how she so graciously interacted with the customers and other employees.
This is not to say that she wasn’t a firecracker with a very lively persona. She didn’t take any guff from anyone…. Looking back, I can’t remember a time when she wasn’t always runnin’ and gunnin’ and living life to the very fullest – while at the same time keeping her family and family needs and isssues as her number one priority.
Being an only child, I really miss her a lot. I know my daughter and grandson miss “Granny” too. So many little things you kind of take for granted at the time. But don’t… you just never know. My Mother worked all day just as usual on a Wednesday, and died the following Sunday. Her leukemia very suddenly went into what they call the blast phase.
Mother was born in Ashdown, Arkansas. She has a brother who passed away a few years back and a sister still living in Sweetwater, Texas.
Five Generations
==============================
One of my best memories was the time I threw a surprise birthday party for her. She did so much for us – it was nice to treat her for a change….
We love and miss you, Mom.
Jesus Gallegos
Artist Jesus Gallegos
Through his paintings,
the artist visually interprets
the myths of his indigenous
Zapotecan culture.
This painting is didactic in nature because it serves as a warning to recent mothers in the Zapotecan culture.
A mother has put her children to bed without feeding them. They are hungry, and the snake hears the cries of these children. So it attaches itself to the breast of the neglectful mother.
She’s put into a deep sleep and entirely unaware of what is happening. The snake then gives its tail to the children, and they receive milk from the snake.
Finally, as a punishment, the snake continues to feed on the breast of the unconscious mother until it has sucked out all of her blood, and she dies. An irony of this visual representation of the legend is that the artist has put his ex-wife in the painting.
The turtle is the artist, as he is watching from afar, the events befalling the neglectful mother.
Above, the pregnant Lala is returning to the earth in order to give birth to her child. She has just returned from visiting the departed female and male sages of the zapotecan culture, receiving information about nature and the animals of the fields in order to be a better parent to her child.
The rabbit is going to be her spirit guide (referred to as xkenda in the indigenous language of zapotecan) when she returns to earth. The flower in which the rabbit is awaiting Lala is a Maguey, which denotes the dry land of the earth. The designs on Lala’s figure indicate that she is going to be a mother.
They convey the love that she has for the child within her own body.
Gallegos ART LINK http://www.mtsu.edu/~cmjohnso/jesus/index.htm
Zapotec is a Mesoamerican Indian people centered at Monte Albán in southern Mexico, whose civilization reached its height around A.D. 300–900.
