tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80021659955765495042026-06-09T02:41:18.415-04:00Making sense of the things your mother used to say . . .Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-39605166736552660962012-06-13T16:07:00.000-04:002012-06-19T16:55:00.741-04:00

"Good friends are a blessing:  Never take them for granted." I am glad that I listened to my mother when she said this.  I am glad that I had the accidental foresight to choose my friends wisely, and that though I have had many of them for nearly half a century, they continue to shine and to appreciate in value. Mamaknologists know that friends are a good thing.  My mother,

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-54891726382332196902012-03-23T12:15:00.002-04:002012-06-30T12:26:09.652-04:00

"Easy comes after Do in the dictionary for a reason." I have a headache.  My headache began when I turned the television on and saw a report that featured parents lamenting the coursework that their poor children were being forced to endure.  The tortured students were expected to learn to speak their native language, open up a book and read something that didn't come predigested on

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-68726367311481879512011-11-14T12:45:00.002-05:002011-11-14T12:53:22.784-05:00

"I see you!" I was talking with a friend over dinner the other night and the conversation turned to the things people do when they don't think anyone is looking.  My friend is from Boston, and she talked about the evening she realized that her mother was ready to step up and take a stand for more than herself and her own children. My friend was young, six or sevenish, and she and her very

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-60918982936443512282011-07-15T18:53:00.001-04:002011-11-15T19:24:44.612-05:00

"Figure out what you want to do, and then everyday, do at least one thing that will take you closer to your goal." How easy does that sound?  Everyday, do just one thing to bring yourself closer to who and what you want to be.  The hard part is knowing what you really want and then moving toward it with consistent, faithful intention, and doing it everyday, not allowing life to

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-49719710377539021362011-06-28T12:25:00.008-04:002012-06-24T15:55:25.176-04:00

"Watch your step, honey." Okay, we're going to make this one short and sweet.  I just got the funniest question from a friend's daughter:  "Why do you walk like that in heels?" Answer:  Because I am a woman and my body is different from a man's, so I have to move with a certain sway, grace, and speed in these shoes. Hmm...  Do I REALLY have to point out the

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-29998937239383354052011-06-19T15:36:00.002-04:002011-06-28T13:25:48.304-04:00

"Everything happens for a reason." This year Fathers Day falls on June 19th, and June 19th has a lot of importance in my life.  My mother and father were married on June 19, 1949.  If they were both still with us, this would have been their sixty-second wedding anniversary.  Sixty-two is a lot of years and a lot can happen over that much time, but almost right up until the day he

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-57806753483510513032011-05-24T19:42:00.001-04:002011-05-24T19:44:12.058-04:00

"Take care of your own business." If you really take the time to pay attention, and follow through on all of the associated actions, this bit of Mamaknowledge makes perfect sense.  Really.  If you pay attention to all of the little details of your life, there is simply no time to mess around in anyone else's business.  And the nice thing about not having time to play

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-25545659740584680152011-05-08T13:04:00.001-04:002011-05-09T13:42:43.569-04:00

"I'll kill a rock over my baby." **Sigh**  I think that these are almost the sweetest words I ever heard from my mother.  In all of her wisdom, she found a way, to define love and motherhood in just a few completely understandable and indelible words. And isn't that what we trust and expect the Mamaknologists of our lives to do?  My mother, the World's Premier Mamaknologist,

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-67494328380803380752011-04-04T17:05:00.000-04:002011-04-04T17:05:00.146-04:00

"Did you hear what you just said?" My mother, the World's Premier Mamaknologist, was really big on the power of words -- maybe that's where I got it from.  She believed that if you used words indiscriminately, it was kind of like screwing up a magical spell.  She believed that words had the power to hurt or to heal and she never understood why people would use them carelessly.  She

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-90149162299554805592011-03-22T13:58:00.002-04:002011-03-22T14:31:21.001-04:00

"Be the friend you want to have." I think I've already said that I am an only child.  So was my mother, and that leads me to wonder if being an only child is an intrinsic factor contributing to my onset of Mamaknology... Anyway... I am so glad that I was taught to select my friends carefully.  I am happy to say that I have friends that I have known and loved for most of my life and

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-41127428498977596632011-03-16T14:03:00.002-04:002011-03-22T14:33:44.201-04:00

"Sometimes you just have to pray." The news has played the disaster over and over, and it is beyond anything any of us can imagine.  People are wondering how and why God would let anything happen like the earthquake and tsunami that swept Japan.  There have even been the terrifying recordings of the earth rumbling before the horrific events, and it is awesomely frightening -- a

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-54457955177032427842011-02-01T12:41:00.006-05:002011-03-15T13:29:01.344-04:00

Leon McFarland 1923-2011 "You only get one -- and one should be enough." I was fifteen when my mother said this, and I have to believe that in and with all of her Mamaknowledge she knew that this day would come.  My daddy passed last night. As sad as that is, it is more cause for celebration than for sadness.  At age 87, he'd covered a lot of ground -- most of it good.  A

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-45147527148579355982011-01-12T11:17:00.000-05:002011-01-12T11:17:01.851-05:00

"Every pot needs a lid." Okay.  This, again, is not totally original but my mother had a specific Mamaknological point to make when she said it to me.  My mother loved the concept of love.  She was completely dediated to the ideas of care, passion and fidelity.  More than that, she really liked my father.  She thought he was funny, smart, creative, and pretty darned

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-2575471075504889602010-10-29T15:25:00.002-04:002011-03-29T15:49:30.506-04:00

"Some days you just have to smile; and some days, you should." Ever have one of those days when you just wake up with inexplicable joy in your heart and a silly smile on your face?  Pretty much everybody has had one, but we don't remember or cherish them as often as we ought to.  My mother, the original Mamaknologist, thought that we ought to count those days and moments&

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-20994583561527064032010-09-29T14:37:00.003-04:002011-03-30T18:54:43.268-04:00

"What the daughter does, the mother did.  I hope you took notes." Being a mother is hard work -- overtime work for some, and my mother took the job seriously.  As a direct response to her seriousness and focus on what she saw as her job, I too take the treatment of  children seriously.  So, I've got to tell you that it was kind of rough to hear the verbal abuse a mother

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-91494359325400231232010-08-14T16:14:00.005-04:002012-06-30T11:22:06.177-04:00

"Always plant good seeds."I was twenty-one and right out of college when this story began. I had just taken on my first teaching job at an inner city school in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. At first glance, the job was everything that a Special Education teacher could ask for: challenging, goal-based with clear objectives, and working across a broad span of elementary education. In reality, I

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"Don't believe everything you hear."Okay, we all know that my mother (the original Mamaknologist) was good for coming up with sayings, but Ben Franklin got her on this one. Ben said, "Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear."Unless you've been under a rock, we have all heard what was said about Shirley Sherrod over the past week or so... And this was a bit of ugly, crude, mean

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-19870270402023497872010-06-04T12:12:00.011-04:002011-04-04T17:24:40.283-04:00

"Don't let labels define you." The first time I remember hearing my mother say this I was really young, maybe five or six years old, and I don't remember what it was linked to. But I do remember being ten years old and having my earnest parents try to explain the 'n' word -- and for some reason, my mother felt the need to tell me that the 'n' word was a label. She also told me that it was a label

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"Everything you think, you don't say."Okay, for the pragmatic 21st century Mamaknologist, this may seem almost absurd. But on the other hand, it might be regarded as common sense. Think about it . . .When is the last time someone said something to you, a "back-handed" compliment, if you will -- and you wanted to slap the spit out of them? But you thought about it, decided you didn't want to spend

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-84545596613540662172010-05-01T16:37:00.003-04:002010-05-01T16:58:04.131-04:00

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you -- just because you can."You already know that this is the Mamaknologist take on the Golden Rule, and I already know that your mother probably gave you the same guidance because... well... it really is the right thing to do for all of the right reasons. But it just struck me today that maybe this is one of those "bringing the universe into

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-61400449871858260262010-03-23T15:00:00.005-04:002010-03-23T15:11:32.347-04:00

"Aren't you glad God hears prayer?"My mother, the Original Mamaknologist would be proud of me. Today I signed up to be a part of an online prayer ministry. This may not sound like a lot to you, but for the past two years I have let a lot of things get in the way of my prayer life. Just stuff like: I don't have a car and my church is not on a busline (like there are not other churches in the world

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-59830871510206239822010-02-20T11:02:00.003-05:002010-02-20T11:18:23.260-05:00

"A job worth doing is worth doing right."I just want to say that my mother (the original Mamaknologist) would not have liked this, and neither do I. I applaud the Naional Park Service for wanting to do something special, but why didn't they give the project the attention it deserves?This February, in "honor" of Black History Month, the U.S. National Park Service Division of Interpretation and

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-18134995662161318492010-02-15T15:18:00.005-05:002010-03-23T15:34:49.263-04:00

"Happy Birthday, Baby!"Today would have been my mother's 82nd birthday, and though she really hated this picture, this is her. We've already talked about her health challenges, and then there are those other challenges . . . You know, the ones inherant to being a woman of color in the twentieth century. But that's not what I want to talk about. Today, I just want to wish my mother, the Original

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-39525385624488686662010-02-05T10:32:00.004-05:002010-02-05T14:37:22.459-05:00

"Don't EVER forget, I am your mother."Today is a very special day for me and my mother. Today, is the anniversary of our very last day together. My mother, the original Mamaknologist passed on February 5, 1985. It was ten days before her 57th birthday. And her death, almost as much as her life, set so many bars for me.Today, because of my mother, I am not only a reader, I am a writer. Because of

Gail McFarland -- The Fitwryterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02723400548101557363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8002165995576549504.post-64435656675962498632009-12-31T12:02:00.002-05:002010-01-03T12:28:47.250-05:00

"In all things, give thanks."Okay, this one is not original Mamaknology. It is from 1 Thessalonians 5:18, and it absolutely describes how I am feeling right here at the beginning of a new year, and a new decade. This is not the year that I will make new resolutions -- not that some of mine have not worked in the past. Rather, this is the year that I will simply be thankful to hold onto and build

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