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And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.” — Luke 1:38

A previous issue of the Herald had a lovely essay written by Peggy Keener. She tells us of a gracious, inspiring mother of four children. Peggy was one of them. She has continued a tradition of care with her own family and of course, a well read weekly article in our Austin area newspaper.

I encourage you to reflect on all the days of the year — days where mothers give their talent, energy, creativity and stability. The following peers into a few examples. Hanging in the Repinski home are several paintings by Atlanta Constance Sampson. 

She realized a dream when in 1988 she hosted a one-woman show at the National Arts Club in New York City when she was 91.

Sampson was born in 1896 on a small farm east of Lyle and north of Toeterville, Iowa and started painting pictures when she was a child.

She graduated form the University of Minnesota with an art education degree and moved to Detroit, Michigan where she taught. She moved to New York City in 1947.

Miss Sampson moved her possessions and lived in Toeterville when she established a museum. A multitude of people from many places could say, in viewing  this artist’s work, “she mothered my own creative juices!”

The variety of contributions to a broad community is seen in this special person.

Professional ice dancer Lacy Marsh, is a coach and choreographer form Bitterroot Valley, Montana. She has spent time as a youth ministries director at First Lutheran Church in Missoula and wrote the semi autobiographical book “Godly and Girly: Your Life in a Crazy, Messy, Confusing World.”

Small starts may lengthen to world-wide appreciation. A woman who in 1977 at the age of 40, was inspired by the idea of writing a story — a short story. This writing took the wings of a bird, as we may say, and roosted in many countries following her life in Chicago.

Jean Marie Auel is an author known for her Earth’s Children series of novels, which are set in a prehistoric Europe.

As of 2010, Auel had sold more than 45 million copies worldwide and features familiar book titles such as “Clan of the Cave Bear,” “The Valley of the Horses,” and “The Mammoth Hunters.”

An organization that receives support from some of the Austin area churches is called the Heifer Project. A primary force and guidance of the work that has focus around the world in dedicated women.

In reading over and over again, I put new vigor in my aging steps! Please read the following several times and your steps will need new soles.

From “Optimism,” by Jane Hirshfield

“More and more I have come to admire resilience.

Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam

Returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous

Tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,

it turns into another. A blind intelligence, true.

But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers, 

Mitochondria, figs — all this resinous, unretractable earth.”

“The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.”  — Helen Keller.

George M. Smiga writes about his history. Think with me about how your mother’s assistance and decisions have enabled your present life:

“When the Russian army invaded Poland during the Second World War, my mother, who was born in Poland, was sent to a work camp in Siberia. She was eighteen years old. After years of hard labor, she was able to escape to a refugee camp in Iran. There she met my father who was an officer in the U.S. Army, married him, and returned to the United States as a war bride. My parents lived long and fruitful lives, raising me and my siblings in a stable home with much love.

Living into her nineties, my mother would frequently remark in her last years, ‘I never thought I would live to be twenty. Now look at me, one of the most fortunate people in the world.’ The Second World War was a catastrophe. Millions of people died. Millions more were displaced. Yet, at the same time, new relationships began, new families were born. As history moved forward, God was able to draw life from the inhumanity of war.”

Are we getting some of this right in the City of Austin? It’s happened before and now again Hormel Food Corps. is in the process of building a resource to better grant child care to our community. Thank you for this investment. The tax abatement, so necessary, is a far-sighted plan.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” I Corinthians 13: 4-7