Linda Tarbuck My Mother

I have been endowed with the special ability to appreciate the unique and differentiating qualities of others. I believe that a group is its most vibrant, representative, and complete when it consists of the widest possible range of talents and unparalleled abilities.

I can envision few things I relish more than sliding into a bed freshly made by my mother. She, and only she, can create such a comforting woven womb. Only my mother can construct this divine envelope filled with the scent of Minnesota spring. Mom can also turn hospital corners into geometrical masterpieces. I picture myself loosening them with my toes and view my mother's artistic hands feeding the linens into the tight-lipped mouth formed by my mattress and box spring. I now imagine myself growing beneath my mother's flesh, near her beating heart, as she tucks and folds sheets as a hotel maid. Did the vacationers and business people, I wonder, appreciate my mother's skill as they drifted into dreams?

Of course it is not only my mother's bed-making skills for which I love and admire her. I cherish most that she has bestowed upon me the ability to seek out and make treasures of the unique qualities and special talents of others.