Ode to joy: a celebration of motherhood in three parts (part one)

In honor of Mother’s Day, I want to do something a little different this year. I am going to share a celebration of motherhood in three parts. I will post each one separately, and then tie them all together at the end. So buckle up, and enjoy the ride!

Part One

The empty piñata

Ode to my late grandmother

The anticipation was so thick in the air, you could feel it. I don’t even remember whose party it was, but I do remember the main attraction – a piñata. We were so excited for the day to arrive. We practiced our swings and dreamed of the kinds of candy that would gush from this glorious object when one of us was able to get a good crack at it.

We kids imagined Hershey Kisses, packs of M&Ms, Snickers bars, Kit Kat bars, and Twix candy bars spilling forth from the bountiful piñata. Yes, this would be a great day.

The day finally came, and we all stood in line, anxiously waiting to smack the piñata.  Beautiful in form, it swung from the ceiling in Grandma’s old house. Blindfolded and salivating, we grasped the stick with our growing hands, and we could almost taste the goodies with each hack we took.  

One of the boys was the first to open it up, and we all dove onto the hard wood floor, hands cupped and reaching upward to catch a big handful of the rain of sugar and chocolate. There we lay, wiggling with anticipation.  

But the sky never opened up, spilling all types of delightful candies and desserts. All we saw was a hole in the piñata, and all we heard was silence. We all turned to Grandma.

“You mean you have to buy candy and stuff it yourself?” was Grandma’s surprised reply.

And we laughed. How we laughed! Even as sugar-crazed children, the laughter at Grandma’s was way more important than hoards and hoards of candy. Who needed candy when Grandma was around to play cards with you and laugh at your silly elementary-school jokes?

I read this quote and thought it summed up my grandmother so beautifully:  

She somehow found loveliness everywhere she went – perhaps because she brought so much of it with her.

**Stay tuned for Part Two, coming tomorrow!**