Reminding me she's still there...
When my mother died at 3:00 AM on May 18th 2003, a robin sang outside her hospice room window for 20 minutes. A robin is engraved on her headstone where she is buried. She was small and petite, but loud and melodic in life, just like a robin.
Robins always hopped around me when I walked down the driveway to my Jeep each morning, before the drive to school. Their songs always in my ears when I walked through the school parking lot before class. They greeted me when I walked out of a girl's house one morning, after the worst mistake of my life.
And one day, when I walked down to the track during spring break, my heart heavy with shame and the intention of running a workout so hard even my conditioned body would take it as punishment.
Then I looked up. I was by a neighbor's home. They have a little boy, barely old enough to walk. He was toddling forward, gurgling excitedly and smiling and laughing, his arms outstretched towards... a robin.
My mother had taught children for over 20 years when she died. She loved kids with the utmost of her heart, and now her symbol was playing with one again.
I know that when I see a robin, it's God reminding me she's still there.
Robins always hopped around me when I walked down the driveway to my Jeep each morning, before the drive to school. Their songs always in my ears when I walked through the school parking lot before class. They greeted me when I walked out of a girl's house one morning, after the worst mistake of my life.
And one day, when I walked down to the track during spring break, my heart heavy with shame and the intention of running a workout so hard even my conditioned body would take it as punishment.
Then I looked up. I was by a neighbor's home. They have a little boy, barely old enough to walk. He was toddling forward, gurgling excitedly and smiling and laughing, his arms outstretched towards... a robin.
My mother had taught children for over 20 years when she died. She loved kids with the utmost of her heart, and now her symbol was playing with one again.
I know that when I see a robin, it's God reminding me she's still there.