My mom’s coffee pot was always full and we shared many a happy hour at her kitchen table. I ended up with the coffee pot and on Mother’s Day we brought it out of storage and made a pot of strong brew in honor of her.
That got me thinking about all the times when the telephone would ring and I’d be asked “would you like to come for cofee? I just made a fresh pot.” Who could resist that invitation? Many times, needing advice, I’d sit at her table with our cups steaming, hot and black–the way she liked it. The pot sat close by for refills. By the time my cup was empty, I would have the answer to my problem, whether it was what to do with a families member’s cold, how to mend hurt feelings, or how to tame an unruly child.
I really miss my mother’s wisdom. It was not learned from books (she never went to highschool). It was learned from experience. Having married at an early age (just before she turned 16) she and my dad raised three boys and a girl (me). She kept us well fed and clothed despite my dad’s meager salary and food rationing that was imposed in the pre war years.
We have so much today, but sometimes we lack in the most important things. Wisdom is one of them.
Don’t you wish you could just go to the store and buy wisdom in a can? I wonder what the label would contain. The ingredients list? Disclaimer about the results ? A notation about how long its shelf life is? Could I just keep it on my shelf and open it when I really am stymied about a situation that needs an extra dollop of understanding? I’d like a crate of 12 cans, please.
I miss my Mom”s little nuggets of wisdom–sometimes laced with a little humor, sometimes with a severity that made me weigh her words carefully and follow her advice. She had no need of a container to keep her wisdom in. Knowing all about canning (her canned peaches were to die for) she could have probably figured out a way to do it! The fact that she never went beyond the eighth grade did not hinder her efforts of running her household.
The Bible tells us to ask for wisdom. Raising my three brothers and me must have caused her and my Dad to be begging for it. We must have been handful back when we were kids, but they had wisdom to guide us, and I am grateful for their love and necessary discipline.
Joke of the day:
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not adding it to your fruit salad.
Alphabet Story 
C is for the courage to ask for wisdom. Thank you for your lovely writing and wisdom and all of the times that you have helped me!
Until now I had never thought of adding a tomato to a fruit salad. I wonder if the tomato feels left out, or confused. Living as a fruit trapped in a vegetable’s body.
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