When You Hear Your Mother Come Out of Your Mouth

It happens without warning.

You aren't thinking about your mother.

You aren't trying to sound like your mother.

You're just going about your day when suddenly you open your mouth and say:

“Turn those lights off. Nobody's in there!”

And then you freeze.

Wait.

What did I just say?

Because that wasn't simply something my mother might have said.

That WAS my mother.  Same words. Same tone. Possibly the same facial expression.

And suddenly I'm remembering all those things I heard growing up.

“Close that door!”

“Do you think we're heating the whole neighborhood?”

“Put that back where you got it.”

And one of the classics:“Because I said so.”

When you're young, some of these things make absolutely no sense.

Why does she care so much about the lights?

Why can't the door stay open for another thirty seconds?

Why does everything have to be put back immediately?

Then one day you're standing in your own house staring at a light burning in an empty room thinking: Who left this light on?

And that's when you know. It has happened. You've become the person concerned about the electricity bill.

But it's not always something funny. Sometimes I recognize my mother in the way I do something. The way I prepare something. The way I take care of somebody. A little habit. A phrase. A look. A tone of voice.

Something I didn't consciously decide to carry with me but somehow did. And every now and then, I find myself admitting something my younger self would never have believed:

Mom had a point.

Now let's not get carried away. I didn't say she was right about everything. 

But some of those things I rolled my eyes at? I understand them now.

And maybe that's one of the funny things about getting older.

One day you realize some of the people who raised you have quietly been traveling with you all along in your expressions. Your habits. Your sayings. Your recipes. Your laughter. And apparently in your concern about lights being left on in empty rooms.

So if you've ever opened your mouth and heard your mother come flying out...

You know That Feeling.

Where real life is spoken out loud.

What did your mother always say that you now catch yourself saying? Come join the conversation.