Coming home from a long night, I was very much looking forward to a good night’s sleep. I was exhausted, emotionally drained, and all I wanted was my bed. Imagine my dismay when I opened my bedroom door to find a huge spider staring at me from across the room.
Let me give you some background. Along with airplanes and heights, spiders are my biggest irrational fear. The kind of fear that sends chills up my whole body. So, after an already difficult night, I called my mom in tears unsure of what to do.
I give her credit for being able to understand what I was saying between breathless sobs of, “I hate it. I just want it to go away.” “You want what to go away? The spider?” she said. As I look back now, it’s funny. But, let me tell you, it was not funny in the moment. And this was before I noticed the hundreds of baby spiders sprawled out on the ceiling…
I may have blacked out in a moment of sheer terror because I don’t remember my reaction to that. But I do remember my mom assuring me she was on her way. To my mom, currently reading this: you came over at 1 am to help me kill hundreds of baby spiders…yes, you can be featured in my column now.
Moms just have a way of being able to make everything better. I don’t exactly know when this transition to womanhood happens, when suddenly you know how to cook the best lasagna ever made and can handle killing spiders in the middle of the night, but moms just know.
I’ve never really had a close relationship with Mary. There was always something about her that seemed unattainable to me as a woman. I think my thought process was I know I will never be that perfect, so it just kind of makes me feel bad about myself when I think about her perfection.
But, still, when I can’t fall asleep or when I’m nervous, there’s something about repeating the Hail Mary over and over that settles me. It’s that peace and comfort that comes from a mother, I think. Like calling your mom in the middle of the night.
I’d like to imagine that Jesus used to call on Mary when he needed help or was afraid. Maybe he needed help killing spiders in the middle of the night, I don’t know, stranger things have happened in Nazareth. I wish we had more of those in-between years, to see those tender moments between mother and son. It helps to think about Mary as a young mother, trying to do everything she could to care for her family. Maybe she’s not so unattainable after all? I’m working on it.
If she’s anything like the moms I know, who would do anything for their kids and their families, even kill hundreds of spiders in the middle of the night, then she’s alright by me.
