The infinity of what life is
Tulip Chowdhury is cheered by a work of warm love
1 February 2008, 18:00 PM
Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul
Health Communications, Inc
A mother's love can move mountains. The wonderful tales in Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul hold this truth for every reader. They are all about how a mother's love can create miracles. The tales are life experiences told with wit and compassion that touch the soul. The stories have the power to bring tears and smiles to readers. The characters are so vivid that they seem to live and breathe with the reader long after a story is read. The writers with their skills make us feel distinct yearnings for the characters. The stories offer the readers a rare combination of intimacy and transcendence. The book holds 101 stories, each a treasure mountain, waiting to be read and discovered. The stories open with beautiful sayings that throw light on their themes. They open the hearts and rekindle the spirit in mothers.
The opening page of the book has an illustration that shows a mug with the inscription, "Mom's chicken soup --- Ingredients; chicken, broth and lots of love." The writing makes the reader sit up and dig into the book. A mother's love is what holds us together from the very moment we are born. It perceives no impossibilities. A chapter of the book opens with Mother Teresa saying, "Love is a fruit in season at all times and within reach of every hand".
The book has wonderful cartoons by Bil Keane from the Family Circus. One such cartoon shows a mom gazing into the two-year old son who tells her, "Mom, I must have two hearts because I love you so much!"
The book is divided into different parts, each with different headings. Among these are "On Becoming a Mother", "A Mother's Courage", "Special Moments" and "Mother's Guiding Hand". There is also a part that is dedicated to grandmothers with the heading, "A Grandmother's Love". Each and every part comes with stories that have compelling characters. The stories touch one's core and bring one tenderly back to the true meaning of motherhood.
In the story, "An Indescribable Gift", Anne Morrow Lindberg writes about becoming a mother, "She slips into this world, and into my arms, placed there by heaven. She is straight from God, an indescribable gift. Through joyful tears I whisper in her ear, 'We are glad you are here. We have waited so long to see you.' She opens her eyes, and I am transformeda timeless moment filled with the infinity of what life is. In her eyes I see total recognition, unconditional love and complete trust. I am a mother. In that instant I feel, and in my heart I know, everything I need to know to guide her."
Motherhood comes to a woman with blessings that are beyond words. In the sheltered simplicity of the first days after a baby is born, one sees again the magical closed circle, the miraculous sense of two people existing only for each other.
Motherhood often comes with a heavy price. Some women have to wait several years before they conceive. And there are mothers who lose babies before they even get a chance to come into the world. There are also women out there who have cried and begged for a chance to become mothers and yet fate did not bless them with motherhood.
Art Urban writes on motherhood, "A mother's love is like a circle, it has no beginning and no ending. It keeps going around and around, ever expanding, touching everyone who comes in contact with it. Engulfing them like the morning's mist, warming them like the noontime sun, and covering them like a blanket of evening stars. A mother's love is like a circle, it has no beginning and no ending."
There are sad tales of mothers losing their children. Barbara Bush writes about Robin, her daughter whom she lost when she was three. Robin had leukaemia and died very soon after her diagnosis. Barbara made up her mind that she would let her daughter go very peacefully. She did not allow anyone to shed tears in front of Robin. She writes of her little daughter, "Robin was wonderful. She never asked why this was happening to her. She lived each day as it came, sweet and loving and unquestioning and unselfish."
Barbara Bush writes that one moment Robin was there and the next moment she was gone. She writes, "I truly felt her soul go out of that beautiful body."
Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul holds stories about special moments for mothers. It holds tales of mothers pulling out their hair over the teenage craze of their children. There is deep insight and great humour existing between growing children and parents. Joan Rivers writes about her teenage daughter, "A daughter's teenage years can be a mother's attempts to
Elaine Hardt offers advice on spending special moments with children, "Make a memory with your children, spend some time to show you care, toys and trinkets can't replace those precious moments that you share."
A mother guides her children all the way and beyond. When children grow up they realise that they have learnt a lot without having felt that they were taught those lessons of life. Bettie B. Young writes about how her mother took the four siblings out to collect the daily mail half a mile away. Those were special moments of basking in their mother's love. They learned to take immense pleasure from these short trips as a family. Their mother taught them to answer their own mails and taught them to respect the privacy of others. It was only when they were in their early teens that they realised that it was Mother herself who had sent the mails only to teach them the lessons of life.
Mike Staver writes about his mother's letters that she used to keep under his pillow while he was passing through a very difficult adolescence. They contained words that were a simple reflection of unconditional love and understanding. The letters always ended with, "I am here for you and I love youthat will never change." Mike was able to sail through the rough sea of his life holding on to his mother's unrelenting love for him. In the midst of his turbulent teen years the letters were a calm reassurance that he could be loved just as he was. Late in life, whenever trouble brewed, he would place his hand under his pillow, imagining that there was still that calm assurance that love, consistent, abiding, unconditional love was there for him---it had the power to change life.
The greatest feat of motherhood is the unconditional love that exists between a mother and a child. This book is a testament to this truth. The stories are powerful, heartwarming and full of life. Every story speaks of the depth of power and love between a mother and a child. Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul is a work coming out in a series of variations as well. There are Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul and many others. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of every title in the Chicken Soup series is donated to charity. So when you buy one of the books, you are not only guaranteed some quality reading time but you also help enrich the lives of others.
Tulip Chowdhury writes fiction and poetry and is a teacher
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