I Could Not Have Asked For A Better Phone Call....

My mother phoned me last week to tell me to put the TV on and watch the Florida/South Carolina football game.
"Honey " she said, "this is gonna be a great game...Steve Spurrier who coaches for SC used to coach for UF and that Tim Tebow. These are two great teams playing and I have to go to church. So you kids watch it, I will call you when I get home and let me know how the game was.... Also the other game I just saw was...." and she went on and on about college football.

When I hung the phone up and I put the game on I sat there and my nose started to get stuffy and my eyes began to fill up. A tear had not yet fallen. Dan came in and said..."what game?"
I told him about mom's phone call and he too stopped in his tracks. "You mean mom called to tell you about this game and all the stats on the players and coaches and more?"
I nodded.
Dan's face lit up...
"Do you know what this means honey?" I said to him.
Dan bit his lip....and nodded back at me...
"She's watching college football again." I said fighting a tear back.

You have no idea what this means and my mother's road back to the college football circut.
When Dad passed away last Sept. there was no talk of football and a sound of a game in her house for months. Not until my uncle Jake came to stay with her in January. When he was there in her home he watched football and mom only felt comfortable watching it with him. She needed him around to sit and watch the game with her... She did cheer for the Steelers in the Super Bowl at our Super Bowl party last year. (dad was a very good friend of one of the coaches for the Steelers)

Since Daddy spent his adult life coaching football, college football was a little tradition in the Mayo home. Mom would come home from work on Saturdays and sit in her recliner next to dad in his recliner and they would watch the college games. She could tell you more about the players, the teams, the coaches, the universities, the offensive and defensive coaches and players and all the families tied into the organization. It was remarkable. Same with the pro teams too. She knew it all. But when dad passed wanting Alabama to will the title last year (UF won) she wanted no part of it.

So you have to see, when I got the call to watch the game and she went on and on about the teams, I was more dumbfounded than anything. I was elated. I was happy. I was sad. I was over joyed for her. She came a long way this year not having my father around.
And you have to look at it like this...having the sound of football on in her house is like hearing
Yo Yo Ma play with the London Philharmonic....Heavenly.

We watched the Florida/South Carolina game that day. I don't even like college football, and Dan really isn't a big fan of it either. But we did it that day, just because mom asked us to and because she was so happy with the game.

The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible tell us... For everything there is a season. A time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to stop searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.

She's finding a time to plant and harvest. She is finding time to heal, to tear down and build
again. She is still cries but laughing so much more. She still grieves and she dances like an angels to the sound of a harp. She is scattering stones and collecting them, she can embrace even harder and can't seem to find many reasons to turn away. She continues to search ans in some cases stops searching. She has found plenty to throw away, and she can mend the tear, find quiet time, has lots to speak about and more and more to love each day. there is no time for war in her, not even a personal one and she can find peace in her day each and every day.

This phone call was a little bit of mom's time shinning through and I could not have asked for a better phone call.