MOTHER MAY I

Pearl of the Day: Dance upon the Tears

In Judaism there is a pearl that says you should always chose life over death.

This past Sunday, we had a scheduling conflict and a choice whether to attend my grandparents unveiling or my daughter’s best gal pals second birthday party. Upon first glance it would seem that following this pearl we’d have to choose the birthday party over spending the day at the cemetery.

Yet, we chose to attend the unveiling. While standing around my grandparents grave site revealing their single shared headstone I watched my family and realized that we made the life choice. Without my grandparents remarkable journey and tale of survival lord knows what form I’d be in right now or where my mother would be.

During the ceremony, my children both fell to the ground and began playing with the dry earth upon my grandparent’s gravesite just like they would in a sandbox. If I would have brought a pail and shovel they would have dug them up for sure.

It was beautiful to see how the death below gave way for life above, like flowers growing from fertilized soil.

The rabbi began singing a prayer and right on cue my daughter in her new hot pink shoes given to her by her best gal pal whose birthday we missed now covered in the earth, began dancing. She was literally dancing atop her great grandparents grave. My initial reaction was to pull her off but then my son followed suit. I turned to my mom who was smiling and crying and she said that her parents would have loved this and not minded one bit.

Leave it to children to dance upon our tears.

In honoring our elder’s death, the fourth generation was filled with life. My son began to read off the letters on the headstone. My niece was passed out in her father’s arms. What a memorial. What an unforgettable day. What a toast to life.

I embarked on the Mommas Pearls journey when my grandmother passed away last year and it’s a beautiful start to the month of May given the fact that Mother’s Day was founded by Anna Jarvis to honor the passing of her mother.

Happy Mother's Day!

PS: Happy Birthday Drew!! :)

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