She is.

There’s different kinds of teachers in the world. The strict ones that focus on what you “can’t” or “shouldn’t” do. The “simple” ones that dumb things down so much, you feel like you’re stuck in preschool hearing them emphatically repeat phrases over and over as if the resound is understood differently. Then, you have the “taught” teachers, who try hard to explain what they’ve been taught, but can’t quite put it into words you can understand. I could go on about types of teachers I’ve experienced in my lifetime, but that’s not really the point. The point is—this one teacher—the “model” teacher; let’s focus on her for a moment. This teacher wears her content. She is a walking three dimensional figure of the subject area she intends to educate her pupils in. This teacher IS the model. She is—the thesis. She is—my mother, and it’s not so much what she teaches me, rather how she teaches it, that really illuminates the lessons I hold dear. She just lives and shapes me with the lessons she breathes. Here are the top 5 life lessons she breathes into me.

Number 5: Experience all life has to offer.

My mother is always ready to encounter and participate in life. She left home at 17 to encounter it for herself. A college student, server, substitute teacher, babysitter, house cleaner, wife, salon owner, hostess, stay-at-home mom, minister, writer, missionary, world-traveler, whatever role she is in, it's to EXPERIENCE first hand what LIFE brings to her. She is never “stuck”, always moving to the next thing, wanting to engage more. It’s my mothers drive to go and do that has driven me to wear many hats, get my hands dirty, take the trip, change jobs, or just find somewhere or something new to experience. She is behind every experience I take whispering “seize the day”.

Number 4: Accept YOU, with no exceptions.

She teaches me this by watching her fight to create this paradigm shift in her own life. I am educated through her mistakes and successes. My mother had always struggled with her weight and self-confidence. She ended up having a gastric bypass that nearly took her life when I was six. I watched her run to people, things, and procedures to fix the pain left by rejection, most detrimentally inflicted by self. However, I watched her spirit rise through the fight. With every defeat, surrender, and even in moments of death and despair —this spirit came out of the ashes. Now, she is “alive”, and continues to show me how to ACCEPT myself and fight to love the person I am. She screams take on every part of YOU!

Number 3: Embrace people and places.

My mother cuddles, holds, accepts, welcomes, supports, champions etc... She is the epitome of the word. She teaches me to embrace people and places. With friends from Iran, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, England, and the Ukraine (I’m sure that’s not all—just what I recall right off hand) she teaches me to welcome all people. She is that smile, that hello, that voice that encircles you and pulls you in. Last November, she flew with me to KC to surprise my twin sister for our birthday. Waiting to board the plane, I went to the restroom and upon coming back she had made friends with a guy that had sat down next to her. Before boarding the plane, he had given her the address of his Mexican restaurant in downtown KC. He told her that our meals would be on the house. I tell this story not because it surprises me, but so you can see how she “shows” me how to EMBRACE PEOPLE and PLACES.

Number 2: Believe!

Whether it’s believing in myself, Santa, the Easter Bunny, a promise, someone else, or God himself. She teaches me to grab hold of something and become so sure of it, that it becomes a reality. I watch her believe for many things, and never stop until she sees things start to happen. She instills in me that fight to see things come to be. It’s because of her example that I held on to see the promise of my baby girl come to be. For 18 years, I applied this lesson and I am finally living the reality. She tells me to BELIEVE!

Number 1: Have Fun!

She is not the serious type, and celebrates every occasion she can. Holidays are always BIG. A month of Christmas bulb earrings, sweaters with flashing lights, bunnies and egg trees, hearts dangling from the mantle, and pilgrims and indians on the bookshelves. She has clothes and accessories for every national holiday and all the small ones too. I recently had a friend from Guyana tell me that my mother’s 4th of July traditions left a lasting impression that she still carries with her to this day. Many of my friends growing up referred to her as the crazy, cool mom. I remember prank calls she made with us, watching her sing karaoke, and a day when she came home with purple hair. We never know what she will pull, but we always know; we will HAVE FUN!

These five lessons are among many others, but definitely some of her best. She is my best teacher, and not for the quantity of lessons, but for modeling how to apply them. I love how my mother “showed” me. She wore the lessons, and I hope I wear them as beautifully as she does. She Is__________.