The Little Ways They Live On

One of my favorite songs has the line, “And the memories bring back, memories bring back you.”

Watching your young child grow can surely do just that. The little behaviors that mirror my own - needing to cuddle close to sleep, resting on Mama’s hand, and sometimes waiting to hear Mama’s heartbeat settle into a sleeping pace before falling asleep - are heartening in themselves. The similarity between my reactions, or the reactions I wish to have, and my own mother’s responses to me amazes me. It makes me miss her even more.

As a child, I did not fully realize it; I simply accepted her love as it was. But now, I understand it differently. I can relate to it more deeply, and I wish I could tell her how natural and familiar it feels to be on this side of that love.

At other times, seeing the little one rest in his rocking chair, quietly lost in thought, reminds me of my dad. The resemblance, in both the behavior and the peaceful expression is uncanny, yet amusing to see in such a small child. Again, it is something I wish I could share with the original “chairman,” as I called him, so attached as he was to his own chair.

It feels as though they live on through the eyes of a mother who was once a much-loved daughter. Hugging the little ones tight helps because, as my dad would say, “Life, you know, goes on.”