Forever One, and Only

This morning, I said to my mother, “You look beautiful in that dress.”

And as she sat, across from the table, she couldn’t help but smile. It was a breathtaking smile, the kind that’s so bright that it becomes a white-washed photo in one’s memory.

Outside the window, drops of rain were beginning to fall, and I could smell the dampness of the earth.

So I asked her, “What makes you smile?”

And then she looked at me, and replied, “I smile because God loves me very much, and has blessed me with the most precious little girl. Which other woman’s first bite on this day in this world is eating a red velvet cake made by her daughter?”

This is my mother, and I love her.

A little boy asked his mother “Why are you crying？
一個男孩問他的媽媽：『你為甚麼要哭呢？』

“Because I’m a woman,” she told him.
媽媽說：『因為我是女人啊。』

“I don’t understand,” he said.
男孩說：『我不懂。』

His mum just hugged him and said, “And you never will”
他媽媽抱起他說：『你永遠不會懂得。』

Later the little boy asked his father,
“Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?”
後來小男孩就問他爸爸：『媽媽為甚麼毫無理由的哭呢？』

“All women cry for no reason,” was all his dad could say.
『所有女人都這樣。』他爸爸回答。

The little boy grew up and became a man,still wondering why women cry.
小男孩長成了一個男人，但仍舊不懂女人為甚麼哭泣。

Finally he put in a call to God; and when God got on the phone,
he asked, “God, why do women cry so! Easily?”
最後，他打電話給上帝；當上帝拿起電話時，他問道：『上帝，女人為甚麼那麼容易哭泣呢？』

God said: “When I made the woman she had to be special.
I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world;yet, gentle enough to give comfort”
上帝回答說：
『當我創造女人時，讓她很特別。我使她的肩膀能挑起整個世界的重擔；並且，又柔情似水。』

“I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children”
『我讓她的內心很堅強，能夠承受分娩的痛苦和忍受自己孩子多次的拒絕。』

“I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up,and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining “
『我賦予她耐心，使她在別人放棄的時候繼續堅持，
並且無怨無悔的照顧自己的家人，渡過疾病和疲勞。』

“I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances,even when her child has hurt her very badly”
『我賦予她在任何情況下，都會愛孩子的感情，即使她的孩子傷害了她。』

“I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart”
『我賦予她包容她丈夫過錯的堅強和用他的勒骨塑成她來保護他的心。』

“I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife,but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly”
『我賦予她智慧，讓她知道一個好丈夫是絕不會傷害他的妻子的，但有時我也會考驗她支持自己丈夫的決心和堅強。