Dear Mom:

It has been almost eight years since you died, but I still find you in unexpected places. Is it any wonder I continue to write about moms and motherhood?


I find you in the soap products I still use because you used them.

I find you every time I hear ANY song from Fiddler on the Roof because you played that 8-Track tape until it broke.

I find you in the lines on my face, which is starting to show glimpses of you in your 40s.

I find you in the little ways I protect my children; and though I haven't sewn them neon orange coats to wear to school so all the cars will see them - I now know that coat was stitched from a mother's love.

I find you in that old AM radio station when it plays The Entertainer.

I find you in slim, green glass iced-cold Coca-Cola bottles.

I find you in my brand new interest in knowing the actual names of flowers.

I find you when I make my kids Kool-Aid and I let them stir.

I find you when an older mom gives me a tip on how to keep your kid from getting lice at school only to think back, "Hey, my mom did that when I was little" and I never knew why. Now I do.

I find you when I discover a curious fact and squirrel it away in a notebook and everyone wonders why.

I find you in my recent need to have a magnifying glass handy.

I find you in canteloupe even though I LOATHE it due to that bumper crop you grew in our backyard and all there was to eat FOREVER was canteloupe; but my daughters love it like candy, so I buy it.

I find you in the Mother's Day cards I get from my daughters and wish I sent you one every year. If you were here, I would tell you that it is only through the lens of being a mother myself that I see and know and feel all that you did.

Keep showing up in little places and I'll keep looking.

Love,

K

My mom (right) with her sister in 1959.

"What's in the marrow is hard to take out of the bone." -

--

Karen Harrington

author, Janeology

www.karenharringtonbooks.com

 Photos like these inspired me to write about a character, one Jane Nelson, from the perspective of her genealogy - and it was amazing what I unearthed when I posed the question "What if these photos could talk?"

My grandmother-in-law, Manhattan, Kansas; early 1930s

Read an excerpt of JANEOLOGY at www.karenharringtonbooks.com and view the pedigree chart of all of Jane's ancestors.

What did Jane do and why?

www.karenharringtonbooks.com

www.scobberlotch.blogspot.com

We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies. ~Shirley Abbott

I hope you'll enjoy these quotes as much as I do.

k. harrington

author, JANEOLOGY

1. The best research is talking to people. - Jeffrey Archer


2. You can. You know you can conquer your fears. That's what a writer is - a conquerer of fears. - Erica Jong

3. Each word should be weighed carefully as for a telegram to be paid for by the author. - Ernest Hemingway


4. To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man. - Aristrotle


5. One does not choose one's subject matter, one submits to it. - Gustave Flaubert

Stop by my blog - http://www.scobberlotch.blogspot.com

by Karen Harrington, author Janeology

I caught my daughter's silhouette in the clubhouse doorway at White Rock Lake in Dallas last week. I couldn't help but think that one day - all too soon - she will fill that doorway.

It's only for a moment you are mine to hold

The plans that heaven has for you

Will all too soon unfold

So many different prayers I'll pray

For all that you might do

But most of all I'll want to know

You're walking in the truth

And If I never told you I want you to know

As I watch you grow

I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams

And that faith gives you the courage

To dare to do great things

I'm here for you whatever this life brings

So let my love give you roots

And help you find your wings

-- Mark Harris, Find Your Wings
Watch his 3 hanky video here.

Come visit my blog - www.scobberlotch.blogspot.com

Follow me on Twitter. I'm pithy. twitter.com/karenzwriter

That's right. This picture features four of Manchester's finest posing for a photo op earlier this month behind the town's city hall. See that guy on the far left? That's my brother, or, officer Harrington, SWAT team member and former Marine to us civillians. Woo-Haa!

To answer your questions in advance; yes, I'm a proud sis, and no, he's not single.

Cheers,

Karen Harrington

author, Janeology

www.karenharringtonbooks.com