Today is my mom’s 68th birthday, and since Mother’s Day is around the corner too, I’m dedicating this post to her.

There are a few things you should know about my mom. Not only is she the town administrator of her little town (a job she does exceptionally well – and a job she learned from scratch), she is a volunteer EMT with daily emergency runs – often in the middle of the night – and she is a volunteer firefighter as well.

Pretty amazing, wouldn’t you agree?

She raised five kids and about three bazillion pets. She planted enormous gardens, and figured out clever surprises for Christmas and birthdays. I was well into my adulthood before I learned that it was my mom who taught my grandmother to sew beautiful quilts, and not the other way around.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about two lessons that she taught me that are guiding forces in my life.

The first is that honorable people can disagree. Which is such a valuable thing to know and remember. When you come to an impasse with someone, and you feel angry at them and deeply frustated, remind yourself, “Honorable people can disagree.”

The second is how she taught me to be compassionate and forgiving toward other people, particularly those who need the extra compassion and forgiveness. Several years ago a co-worker (I’ll call her Jane) was skipping out on work frequently, leaving me overloaded with her work, in addition to my own. And as I was grousing about it, Mom reminded me that Jane had a very chaotic and difficult life, and that I would never want to trade places with her. She said to me that I should just focus on doing the work as best I could, count my lucky stars for my own fortunate life, and cut Jane some slack.

Mom was so very right.

I have thought back to that moment – a revelatory moment for me – time and again. And it’s a lesson (three lessons, really),  in compassion, in generosity, and in maintaining perspective, that I try my very best to live by.

(yes, that’s me)

So, Mom, thank you.

I love you. I hope you have a great birthday. And I can’t wait to see you in a few weeks.

To the rest of you who aren’t my mom (and who have so graciously indulged me with this post): if you want to wish my mom a happy birthday, please leave a comment!