Five Minute Friday - Hands
Posted by Tonya Salomons on Jun 5, 2014 in Journal | 40 comments
My first #FMFparty post in my new space!! This makes me smile so, so big! Every week a group of us gather for conversation, encouragement and some good old belly laughs and then at 10PM our lovely hostess Lisa-Jo Baker posts a prompt. All chatter on the the Twitter comes to a grinding halt as us writers find our brave and peck out words. Unedited. Unscripted. Un-beautified. We write because we must and we write for the beauty of community. Won’t you join us?
Prompt: Hands
GO!
They’re the part of you where memories are made. Memories that seem to etch themselves in the depths of my being. And even though I’m forty-something and you’re sixty-beautiful I still find myself reaching for your hands and stroking the softness of the skin that stretches over long fingers – a testament to time and beauty.
I don’t remember the very first moment I felt their softness against my skin. Maybe that’s the way it was meant to be, that a daughter would always know her mother’s touch. Like your skin was made for mine and mine was made for yours and how we just know to the very marrow of our being that we fit – perfectly.
I remember those hands brushing tears from cheeks as I sat on your lap in the front seat of the car, daddy breaking sound barriers to get me and my bent up arm to the hospital. How the strokes on my back kept time…
{Would love it if you would join me and the whole community of Five Minute Friday over at Lisa-Jo Baker’s}… But don’t forget to swing back here because…
I’m giving away a copy of Lisa-Jo’s brand new book Surprised by Motherhood
Five Minute Friday - Hands
Missed the other giveaways this week? No worries you can still enter them here:
The Myth of Abundance {or The Gift of Suffering}
Beautiful post, friend! And you keep a secret well!
I felt so good after reading this. I’m 28, and sometimes I feel silly at just how much I want my mommy. I guess that’s something you never really outgrow!
My memory is a daddy’s hands one, though. When I was really little, I used to pretend to fall asleep on the couch sometimes, just so he would pick me up and carry me to bed. I felt so comfortable and safe!
Totally didn’t know you were guest posting on FMF tonight. You DO keep a secret really well! lol
But in all seriousness-this post? Wow. Thank you. It makes me want to drive over to my mama’s house in the middle of the night to give her a big hug.
There is so much that I love about this post. Perhaps everything. But the end? “Your touch brings me home” - that is golden. It is a breath and a kiss and a benediction. Love it.
First, remind me that you’re really great at keeping secrets if I ever need to share something sensitive.
Second, this makes me want both of my parents. Thankfully, they live just around the corner.
There is something special held in a hand, a touch a memory. Of home of love of being held. This is beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
Comment
Thank you
Phenomenal, stirring writing! What an honor to guest post and LJ is so right-you’re such an encourager!
As always, your writing makes me feel like I’m right there with you. So grateful for your willingness to share your giftedness to bless so many xx
Your words are as beautiful as your new “home” today, Tonya. A mother’s touch is one we don’t forget and a memory I treasure from my mother, as well. Thank you for sharing from your heart and I look forward to keeping up with you here. 😉
This was beautiful.
“Maybe that’s the way it was meant to be, that a daughter would always know her mother’s touch.”
These words are beautiful, I just wish they didn’t sting my heart so hard. The touch of my own mother wasn’t the kindest in the grand scope of things. As a young child, I remember them being warm and comforting - it’s only as I’ve grown that began to question the hidden agenda within the warm comfort of her embrace and touch. Emotionally tormented, my mother’s touch sought to transform me into her image. My father? He enabled this. So now as I go a year and a half with no contact with them, I am learning to embrace Jesus’ touch in my life to be the true, real warm embrace that has always been there. I am learning to trust His guidance and judgement of whom He desires me to connect with so I can physically feel His truth. It’s not easy, but worthy. Onward I go, and I take your warm, embracing words of your relationship with your mama - and I am letting Him touch me warmly with them. It is uncomfortable because this is something I am not used to - consistently that is.
Thank you for sharing. Healing is continuing for this heart that was broken by narcissism.
I’m sad that you have painful memories. So many of us daughters do. I pray for your healing - for all of us daughters in need of that healing.
Thank you for sharing.
Patty
This is Katie, Tonya’s momma….within these precious memories there is also pain,forgiveness,tears and healing.
Within every mother there is also a daughter…it is a tangled mystery sometimes beautiful and sometimes painfully hard. Grace to you Marni as you walk, dance, crawl forward…
Except for the hand of God, I couldn’t imagine anything quite like a mother’s touch. Lovely.
This was beautiful. I don’t have that kind of relationship with my own mom, but I try to cultivate it with my kids. I hope one day they can say the same things you just did!
And it’s lovely to meet a fellow Canadian and coffee lover.
I relate.
Yay!! For Canada! (and for coffee of course). Friend - we serve a God who redeems and through your mothering and your beautiful children you WILL know the power of these words in your own life!
So much beauty here, my friend!
Thank you friend!
Love the way you pair the ages between mother and daughter. The sense of touch is vivid to me and the piece prompts feelings words can’t describe
Sounds like you have some sweet feelings of yourself and your mom. I know that the power of human touch is so vital to all children and to adults, too. As my 15-year old son has grown up, I’ve given and received many hugs and loving touches.
We need touch don’t we… it evokes such powerful emotions! So glad you have such a beautiful relationship with your son which includes those beautiful moments of touch.
This was beautiful. Love the power of words and how they can convey emotion and relationship and so grateful to read your words and discover your blog!
Julie - I am so glad that you stopped on by. You are welcome here - there is always room for you!
Your words brought tears to my eyes. It reminded me of the way my mother used to touch my head as she walked by and how even after she went to heaven, on a day when I was feeling so lost and broken without her, it seemed as if God allowed me to feel her touch once more. Thank you. Visiting from Five Minute Friday. EW
Friend… so grateful that God has found a way to help you through such a difficult time through the memories of your mother’s touch. {hugs}
Beautiful words, and reminding me of all the memories of my parents loving me with gentle hands. Thank you.
Kelly - so glad you stopped by and so glad this brought happy memories to you.
I hope someday, my own girls feel just like this. What a beautiful post today.
PattyAnn - They will… because you love them. They will. Blessings to you today.
What a beautiful way to honor a mother. I don’t have those memories with my mother, but I am trying to make those memories for my children.
Thank you for sharing.
*an FMF neighbor stopping by
Debra… so grateful we cling to the cross of a Saviour who redeems all things… and He is doing that as you mother your precious children. Thank you for sharing so honestly here.
This was lovely! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Amy - so glad you stopped by friend. Thank you!
What a beautiful testimony to the power of a mother’s love. It is such a treasured relationship for most - including me. Thank you for sharing. My mother was always there for me. She would stroke my hair when I was upset, or sick, or just needed her. We are visiting her now and as I sat below her on the floor, she began to stroke my hair. It was comforting, and sweet, and wonderful. I’ll never outgrow my need for my mother.
Kelli - my mom still does that to. If I’m on the floor sitting by her feet her hand invariably reaches out and strokes my hair… LOVE IT!!!
I loved your take on the prompt, I was surprised by it! Tears sprung up, my Mom and I are in the same age range. We are physically very far apart now, and sometimes I long to hold her hand. My hands look like her hands did 20 years ago - including a ring she gave me early, one promised to me in a will, but that she wanted me to have when I was going through a difficult medical issue and she could not be with me.
Kelley, I love how you can see your mom every time you look at your hands! Praying for a sweet reunion soon friend. I too know what it is like to have your mom live far away from you - even half a world away! {hugs}