Sometimes strength looks like surviving something enormous.
Sometimes it looks like being able to laugh when life is completely absurd.
I can still hear my mother’s voice when I’m cooking or baking in the kitchen:
“Clean up as you go along.”
When I’m shopping for clothes, I still hear the whisper in my ear:
“You could make it for less.”
I’m grateful for those memories, and they almost always leave a smile on my face — even if the whole “clean up as you go along” thing sometimes drives my partner crazy. 😂
There are probably a hundred phrases Mama said that somehow became part of our shared childhood vocabulary. You could practically hear them before she even opened her mouth.
Because I said so.
Money doesn’t grow on trees.
Don’t look at me in that tone of voice.
We’ll see…
At the time, some were annoying. Some made absolutely no sense. Some made us roll our eyes.
And then something strange happens.
We get older.
And suddenly, we find ourselves saying them — or at least understanding exactly why she did.
Somehow, the words stuck
Over time, all those phrases became more than sayings. They became little touchstones.
Sometimes hearing one takes us instantly back to a kitchen table, a family car, a childhood home, or the voice of someone we love.
And sometimes the person who said them is no longer here, which makes those ridiculous little expressions unexpectedly precious.
We don’t always remember the big speeches.
Sometimes we remember the sentence Mama repeated while unloading groceries.
They remind us of our humanity — and hers.
Then life happens… unexpectedly
Eventually, most of us encounter things Mama’s sayings couldn’t possibly have prepared us for.
Loss.
Illness.
Disappointment.
Fear.
Change.
Plans that go spectacularly sideways.
We learn that strength sometimes really does mean putting one foot in front of the other through something enormous.
But maybe laughter belongs in the survival kit, too.
Maybe laughter belongs in the survival kit
I have occasionally been accused of being “intense.” 😂
But the older I get, the more I realize that treating every challenge with the full weight of our seriousness doesn’t necessarily help us move through it.
I’ve finally learned that humor doesn’t diminish anything we’ve been through.
Sometimes it helps us carry it.
And there is something especially powerful about being able to laugh at ourselves.
Not making fun of our pain.
Not pretending everything is fine.
More like realizing:
Well, THAT didn’t go according to plan.
😂
Perhaps one of the gifts of getting older is finally understanding that not everything deserves equal emotional weight.
Some things require courage.
Some require patience.
And some require shaking your head and laughing because the alternative is ridiculous.
The benefit of hindsight
With age comes a gradual sorting process.
We begin figuring out:
What actually matters.
What doesn’t.
What deserves our energy.
What deserves forgiveness.
What simply isn’t worth worrying about anymore.
And perhaps we get a little better at recognizing our own absurdities, contradictions, and imperfections.
We aren’t suddenly wiser about everything.
But hopefully we become a little less impressed with our own seriousness — and a little more willing to let humor help us heal.
Turns out, Mama may have known something
One thing I’ve realized is that the older I get, the smarter my mother seems to have been.
Those old expressions weren’t necessarily profound philosophy.
Sometimes they were just Mama trying to get everybody out the door on time. 😂
But embedded in them were little pieces of perspective:
Don’t make everything harder than it has to be.
You can’t control everything.
Use what you’ve got.
Keep going.
Have some common sense.
And every once in a while, laugh at yourself.
As we were creating the newest part of My Mama Said™, we found ourselves returning to those familiar expressions — the ones that made us laugh, made us remember, or somehow became truer with age.
That’s what inspired our Mama’s Wit and Wisdom collection.
Not because every phrase Mama uttered belonged in a philosophy book.
But because sometimes a few familiar words are enough to remind us where we came from — and not to take ourselves quite so seriously.
Surviving it all
Maybe the survival kit changes as we get older.
Courage is in there.
Perspective.
People we love.
The ability to begin again.
And somewhere in the bag, hopefully, is a sense of humor.
Because sometimes surviving the hard stuff is the victory.
And sometimes the victory is being able to laugh again afterward.
