Due to some recent changes at work, it’s been a tough month for me.  I’ve come home exhausted in the evening.   I don’t deal well with utter tiredness.  Let’s just say, I get a little emotional and irrational.

It’s as if a little devil sits on my shoulder whispering disheartening messages into my ear.  As a typical devil, he’s not very nice.  In fact, he’s very mean and hits me where it hurts.  When I get tired, my defenses run low and he succeeds in discouraging me in every aspect of my life.

All his efforts made me miss my mom big time the past two weeks.  Sure, there are other people that could give me a hug and sing, “Make the World Go Away.”  However appreciated, the attempt would lack the restorative powers of a momma hug.

The other night I was feeling blue.  The little devil had played on my insecurities and won the game.  I felt lousy.  As I walked by the dresser I found a note written in my mom’s handwriting.

A couple weeks earlier we had cleaned out the garage.  I found a few pictures and notes that I deemed too precious and delicate to be kept in the dusty garage.  So I moved them inside and have yet to find a permanent, safe home for them.  I didn’t pay much attention to the small pile when I gathered it.  I just knew they were notes from my mom that have become a precious commodity for me and that I wanted to protect them.  But I wasn’t ready to look at them quite yet.

The other night I walked by and noticed the top note.  Apparently, mom wrote it to me after one of our arguments.  Unfortunately, we had a few of those.

Her note listed scriptures on forgiveness and she wrote:

“Finally, brethren, farewell.  Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you” (2 Corinthians 13:11).

“I’m sorry – Corina – I love you.  Mom.”

I can’t remember what the original argument was about.  But it felt like the note was written for that precise moment when I needed a momma hug.   Maybe she was telling me goodbye.  I’m not going to lie I would have preferred the hug.   But reading that note helped me knock the little devil off my shoulder for a while.