34 | Summer 2022
Yoga with No Legs: A Tribute to My Mother WIL WOOD
contributing writer
As a shallow, imperceptive male, I didn't realize why Mother's Day was so triggering for so many women. I understand, in part, now, and I want to throw my two cents into the banter. I believe my point of view is worth listening to, not because I am a mother but because I had one.
doing yoga. This could be a very typical scene from the life of a retired couple, but my dad hates paperwork and my mom is a double amputee. I'll focus on my mother and her situation for this article, and more on my experience with adult ADHD another time. Back to yoga.
If you were to have asked her, my mother would have told you that she screwed me up. She would have told you that my childhood and teenage low self-esteem was her fault. Not only did I never make the honor roll, I never broke a 3.0 in middle or high school. Objectively, my mother had raised a failure. Both my parents were in the picture, but my father (who was very busy with work) never seemed worried about me because I was, "just like him."
"Mom,” I said. “You've got half a foot on one side and half a leg on the other. That's so cool you're doing yoga."
A year ago, I walked into my parent’s home to see my dad going through the mail and my mother
our legs on the opposite page in April 2021. In less than a year she'd be gone. What did I learn from her? Well, according to her, she messed all of her kids up: She yelled at us, forgot practices, bribed us, didn't show up to things, occasionally she'd forget us and leave us at places like church, zoos, or grocery stores. She did some things wrong, and I guess they actually were wrong, but she was the best mom I ever had. She tried hard and came up short sometimes. My siblings and I can recall lots of the times while living under her roof that we were bothered with her.
Scared by something that could be interpreted as a compliment, she immediately went to her usual tactics of deflection and self-deprecation. She replied with something like, "It's not like I'm climbing a mountain, I'm just rolling around So, what is it that makes mother's hate the on the floor with what I've got." day made to recognize them? If it's that you don't get properly recognized or compensated That's what she did her whole life. She just did for your work, then I'd say you have a fair the best with what she had. I took the photo of argument. I will tell you this, though: Her
