For as long as I can remember my mother had these sayings that governed my entire life. I never knew where she got them: whether they were passed down from her mother, or whether they came from some handbook that all mothers had to read, and memorize for when they had kids. All I know is that back in the day, all the women I knew used them.

So here are a few, as well as my take on them: “You can’t get a silk purse from a sow’s ear.”  Well, that’s too bad, because if I could, I would get one in every color imaginable: and shoes to match.  “In life, you get out of it what you put in.” On the heels of that was, “what goes around, comes around.” Okay, that does sound fair.

She admonished me to “never cry over spilled milk.” Then added, if I did spill my milk that I would be in trouble, first, because “money did not grow on trees” and second, that was all of the milk until she went shopping. She then added that “worrying about stuff never changed any thing.” 

I learned that “one sometimes had to take the bitter with the sweet; to keep a stiff upper lip, an open mind; my chin up; my nose to the grind stone; and my eyes on the prize.  Mother told me to “keep my conscience clear; my friends close and my enemies even closer.” That last one left me confused, but I still do it to this day. “Better safe than sorry” mother used to say.

“Changing horses in midstream was something to be avoided at all cost” which explains why I got underwear and socks for Christmas instead of the pony I had requested; which also made that “never look a gift horse in the mouth” thing, that much stranger.

There were the kitchen/food references. You know, if “you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” I tried to leave our kitchen once when she was canning fruit, and the house was hot as heck. But she made me come back and peel more stuff. Oh well, at least she didn’t try to make me” get blood out of a turnip” as I had heard that couldn’t be done. 

In mother’s world, “every cloud had a silver lining and even a dog had its day.” Learning that I “couldn’t have my cake and eat it too” really upset me, because I do love my cake. Instead, I learned to “leave well enough alone. To let sleeping dogs lie, to live and let live.”

Today, sometimes I find these same sayings sprouting from my own lips. Mother was right; I’ve discovered that I can do whatever I set my mind too.” And yes, it does “take two to tango.” I once tried to do it by myself only to realize “that nothing beats a trial, but a failure or a success.” Alas, amidst the silence of my own thoughts, comes my mother’s voice, whispering on the wind, “What’s the matter child, ‘cat got your tongue?”