ODE TO A YOUNG MOM

by M. Kate Quinn

There was a woman on the beach that will never know the impact she had on my thoughts. We sat in our beach chairs, my husband and I, a few yards from a young family-father, mother, little girl in a ruffled bikini, and a little boy. They had all the beach gear. You know, the striped umbrella, the floral comforter that used to be on their beds now blanketing the sand they've claimed as theirs for the day. They had the cooler of snacks, the Igloo jug of juice, plastic beach toys, sunscreen, and a boogie board. The scene was ideal.

I noticed the boy. He appeared to be about five or six years old, handsome with dark thick hair. He sat in a stroller. He was immobile, his limbs slack appendages that flopped when the mom lifted him from his confinement. She placed him carefully on the blanket and lounged beside him. The dad and little girl bid them goodbye and frolicked to the water, the girl dragging her boogie board, while mom stayed behind with her son.

I could not help but pay attention to the scene, intruder that I was. Because, you see, my mind was filled that day with thoughts of disappointment. I had been thinking about how sometimes we go into life experience with the highest of expectation, with an ideal image in our minds. I had this image of what life would be like when the kids were grown and Harvey and I lived by the sea. I didn't see the endless stretch of pavement of the Garden State Parkway that it would take for them to get to us or us to get to them. I didn't foresee the pitfalls of missing out on some of the day-to-day activities with the gang or with my good good friends. Some days, like it did on my beach day, it gets to me.


But, then I watched the woman at the beach, saw the way she doted over the boy, cooed to him, her face alight. Although it appeared that the child was unresponsive, I am sure he was, indeed, communicating with his mother. I could tell by the mother's reaction to her boy.

Then when the father and little girl returned, wet and sandy from their swim, the mom listened intently when her daughter animatedly relayed her time in the waves, mom as enthused as if she had witnessed it herself.

It occurred to me that the mom most certainly could not have foreseen that this was what her experience with what parenthood would be. If she had moments of longing for something different, I could not tell. All I saw was a happy family enjoying the beach in the way they were able.

So, what did I learn? I learned that life takes its turns and we have the choice to bend with it or bend away from it. There are countless volumes on the subject of living in the now, making the best of what life is. None of them as poignant to me as that scene on the beach.

So, thank you, young mom, whoever you are. You inspired me to stop fretting over what isn't. And,  I remembered, thankfully, that what is -  is awesome.

Thank you so much Mary Kate for such a lovely post!

Mary's new release is SUMMER IRIS published by THE WILD ROSE PRESS.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The last thing Iris Stanton feels like doing is celebrating her fiftieth birthday. She’s divorced, has been downsized out of a job, and her post-marriage condo is for sale and she can’t afford to buy it. And when her crazy, out-there best friend, Yvonne, offers her the use of a beach cottage for the summer, Iris thinks the idea is preposterous. That is, until she comes up with what could be a solution to her pending homelessness. Selling off her small piece of waterfront property would save the very roof over her head, so she heads to the shore with a mission.

The cottage is in the midst of renovations orchestrated by handsome flirtatious owner, Sam Hanratty. His roguish attention gets Iris’ heart doing flips, jump starting it into remembering she’s still a woman. Sam’s foreman, Eddie Morgan, is the most annoying hulk she’s ever met, and Iris’s heart sinks like lead when she learns that he alone could sabotage the sale of her property.

Iris’ heart gets a workout this summer, with a string of unlikely events that force her to turn inward to examine what makes her tick, what is her heart’s true desire and who might hold the key.

About M. Kate Quinn

Born to a feisty Italian mother and a gentle blue-eyed Irishman, she was given the name “Marykate,” inspired by Maureen O’Hara’s character in the movie, The Quiet Man, an old-time favorite love story that co-starred John Wayne. With a grandmother Catherine and an Aunt Mary the name was an obvious choice. M. Kate Quinn has been writing stories all her life. She has an old Macy’s box in her attic filled with her writings from childhood, now smudgy-looking pages produced on her portable Olivetti Underwood typewriter, an eighth-grade gift from her Grandmother Catherine. Her first paid writing experience came when her children were young having sold greeting card concepts to a card publisher. She is a recent First Place winner of a short story contest sponsored by Reader’s Digest Magazine. She writes a column entitled “Boomer Humor” that appears monthly in her neighborhood newspaper. She and her husband are their own sweet love story, a genuinely simpatico second marriage for each with a combined total of six grown children. Also, they are the proud parents of a ridiculously spoiled, amazingly handsome cat named Samson, AKA “Sammy.” They are happy and grateful that Sammy allows them to share his home. Check out Mary Kate Quinn's blog as well.