A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary. 

                                                               ~Dorothy Canfield

 

Moms Make a Difference....Eventually

 

Men often recognize the special gifts of women: 

 

I would my horse had the speed of your tongue.
(Bendick to Beatrice, Much Ado About Nothing)

Women sometimes recognize their own special gifts: 

 

Do you not know that I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.
(Rosalind, As You Like It)  

 

But more often than not, women rail against their own seeming inadequacies. In a recent television program one of the female characters, disappointed that she wasn't more effective in righting the criminal wrongs of the story, cried in desperation:  I'm just not enough!  And if I'm not enough then why should I keep trying?  Indeed, this is a sentiment that strikes home for most of us at one time or another.

Why keep trying?  Because we have to hope that sometime, somewhere we will make a difference...it just may not be readily obvious.  In fact, we may be dead before we know what that difference is, but does that really matter? 

My youthful selfish self says:  I want to know that I am enough right now!  But my seasoned grandmotherly self knows that even though my influence is not always immediately apparent--actually, mostly ignored--I shouldn't give up. 

One study shows that grandmothers can have a significant influence in families and may even help their families live longer.  Well, that's encouraging.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865565313/The-grandmother-hypothesis-Grandma-may-help-you-live-longer.html?pg=all

In another study, Dr. Daniel Amen, M.D. said:  Of 15,000 people signed up for my health project, 85% were women. When the women got better, their families got better.   It is women who will change the world.

I will have to take his word for it.  Would that my influence had the speed of my tongue!