Celebrating Motherhood and Music

I came across a video on motherhood this week.  The opening lines read: 

Every time a child is born, so is a mother.  

This provided a new perspective on motherhood I hadn't considered before.  Mothers are reborn with the arrival of each new child.

 

In honor of my mom and her Finnish ancestry, I thought I'd share a few pictures.  The first is of her and her grandmother (Lempi Maria Leskinen, born in Kymi, Finland) from the 1970s:

 

I can't get over how much Rachel (the middle daughter in our family) looks SO MUCH like my mom!!

 

My mom's mother, Lempi Brigitta, passed away in her early 40s when my mom was just 16. 

Here is a photograph of her:

 

This is the first time I took notice of the inscription above my grandmother's signature: Rakkaudella. 
It means 'with love' in Finnish.

 

Love takes on many forms.  This is one of them:

 

 

Sunday morning.  Four kids dressed.  In pretty hip outfits. 

One stunning mom dressed.  In a striking outfit. 

And smiling ear to ear.

 

I hope my children will have the blessing of knowing both their grandmothers--but especially my mom.  Since my teenage years, I've been blessed to live close to my paternal grandmother.  I treasure the time we've shared together.  Here we are after attending the Christmas Eve service (2013) at First Presbyterian in San Antonio, Texas:

 

 

It's an annual tradition G'ma started many years ago (longer than I've been alive).  She's pictured here with two of her children, three of her grandchildren and two of her great-grandchildren.  For those of you who are counting, there are also two additional handsome men pictured here:
Ed (G'ma's sweet husband) and Sean (Lisa's 'friend' :) ).

 

I'm grateful for my mother, my grandmothers, my great-grandmothers and their mothers. 
They have built for their posterity a legacy of love. 
A love of God, of family, of freedom, of learning, of sacrifice, of service, of creativity.

 

----

 

 In addition to celebrating mothers this week, we also celebrated the anniversary of the premier of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on May 7, 1824, in Vienna. Beethoven co-conducted it himself.

To commemorate the 190th anniversary, the Jyvaskyla symphony performed Beethoven's most acclaimed work in the Jyvaskyla City Theatre.  The performance sold out in very short order.

 

One of my friends (Helena Nieminen-Ortiz) was in the choir so we were able to get tickets through her.  I was seated on the very last row and loved that I could take in the view of a fully packed house and watch the 110+ musicians and choir members perform with such excitement and control.  I was nestled between two Finnish women--one who could be my mother and the other who could be my grandmother.  They asked to see a photo of my family.  "You have such a beautiful family.  And your parents are stunning.  You are so blessed to have such a wonderful family."  Indeed!!  My grandmother, Lempi Brigitta, was a concert violinist who played in the San Francisco orchestra having earned her MA in violin performance.  I wonder how many times she performed

Symphony No. 9 during her career.

No photos of the performance were allowed.  But I did manage to snap a quick picture of the program during intermission (hence, no one is on stage):

 

 

Among the other highlights of the week was playing broom hockey/floor ball with my research team. 

This was a rematch that's been in the works for nearly 18 months now: 

 

 

They say a family that plays together stays together. 

I'm pretty sure the same holds true for work 'families', too.  :)

 

----

 

Perhaps we can best show our love to our mothers by building on their legacies of love, service, sacrifice and kindness.  That, and finding time to play together.  I'm thinking broom hockey may yet be in store for our next family reunion.  :)