The Mom Lottery

If you think about it, being born is a lot like playing the lottery.When born, some babies appear to be instant prize-winners with lives filled with fancy homes or unique talents or model-caliber looks. Others win a smaller prize, a good life of getting by without the extra frills or pizzazz, but a good life all the same. And many, too many, are born with lottery tickets that only win them lives filled with struggle or unhappiness. Or worse.

Now, imagine that when you were born there really was a lottery. Only instead of a million dollar cash prize or a reward of a new car or a fancy all-expenses paid vacation, the prize for this lottery was the world’s greatest mother. You didn't have to do anything to enter. There were no tickets to buy, no correct series of numbers to be guessed. To enter, you simply had to be born and hopefully, you would win.

Think about what a prize that would be. To win this woman who instinctively knew exactly what you needed. A mother to give you comfort, provide you with sustenance and offer so much more. This person to teach you laughter through a simple game of peek-a-boo or by patiently answering "who's there?" every time you said "knock-knock." A woman to introduce you to a life-long love of reading by sitting you down with her in a quiet, warm place to enjoy a story as she reads it aloud.

As you grew, this prize-mother would show you by example how to be respectful of yourself and of other people. She would teach you that laughter was a necessity; that family and friends must always come first and that, whenever possible, life was to be savored. She would teach you to not pass up the opportunity to have an adventure. She would be supportive of the decisions you made for yourself, even when she didn’t always understand them. She would show you how to weather the bad times and would make sure you understood that eventually things would get better again. And when they inevitably did, she'd be there to congratulate you for getting through it and to encourage you to remember to grab for all the happiness you could.

She might not be the world’s best cook, but she’d make sure you always got to lick a spoon dripping in cake batter. She might not always have the money to give you whatever you wanted, but she’d always make sure you had everything you needed. She’d put band-aids on your cuts and kiss them to make them better. She'd make magic happen with a bucket and some brillo pads so you could win a "crazy hat" contest. She would fill holidays and family get-togethers with so much joy, that your chest would ache from laughing so hard. She’d be encouraging, without being intrusive. She'd know to stand back and allow you to make your own mistakes, even when she could see them coming. And she’d let you be you, and would let you know that she was proud of the child you were and of the adult that you are.

And mostly, this woman, this lottery prize, would offer you a life where you would understand that for every single second you were loved, absolutely and unconditionally.

Sit back for a minute and try to picture what this world’s best mother would look like. Try to see her face and the expression on it. And once you have her image in your head, imagine reaching out your hand and introducing yourself.

OK, have you done it? Can you see the face of this first place prize? Have you said hello? You have? Good.

You have just met my mother.