MaMa

I’ve answered to many names throughout my life.

Of course, there’s the obvious ones:

… my maiden name,

… my married name,

… and just, “Lindy,” of course.

But there’s also been others, like:

… sweetie,

… honey,

… hun (It comes with the territory when your superlative award growing up was for “most polite”).

Then there’s also:

… miss,

… Mrs.,

… Dr.,

… and… ma’am (Which is very much so my least favorite, and the most recent addition to the list, thanks to a teenager at the sandwich shop last month. Polite? Yes. Well meaning? Sure. Appreciated? Nope.).

And, when you have a unique name like Lindy (which – to be clear – I absolutely do love), there are all the other similar sounding names you start to answer to, like:

… Lindsey, Linda, Libby, Cindy, Linny, Lizzy, and the list goes on…

And, you get used to people telling you about the one person they know or who they met that one time whose name is Lindy.

For the record, I’ve met two – Lindys, that is. And I’ve heard of a dozen or so others, including a couple TV characters who share my name – both spelled differently, of course:

1. A yellow dog (Lindi) on the short-run, easily forgotten, Nickoledon show of the 90s, “Allegra’s Window”

2. A little girl (Lyndy) in the long-running Canadian hit, “Heartland,” that’s going on 16 seasons – a show that my mother-in-law spent nearly as long trying to convince me to watch, and which has been mysteriously showing up on my TV each time I turn it on despite changing the channel from the Heartland channel (which I honestly never knew existed), only for me to finally stop and watch for a moment, hearing my name called out from the screen, after which I immediately googled the character list to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating (which I was not).

Yet, out of all these names that I’ve answered to, my favorite name by far has become, “MaMa,”

… usually yelled…

… loudly and with great enthusiasm…

… by a toddler.

It’s usually hollered:

… from the comfort of his crib, announcing to the world that he is awake and ready to start his day,

… or in the midst of his other favorite words, as in, “Mama, MaMa, MaMa! DaDa! Fitzy! Milk! Cars! Roar! Outside! Yay!”,

… while running across the room spilling his cup of water or his bowl of cheerios, racing to plop down in my lap for a snuggle and snack,

… or when I pop my head into the door of his classroom to pick him up, right at the moment his green eyes meet mine, when he jumps up, races over to me, bright blue playdoh in hand, planting his blue-tinged hands on my cheeks yelling, “MaMa!”, before reaching for my hand so we can make our way home.

In fact, there’s so much yelling of, “MaMa!,” in our house that I promise I heard The Fitz try to howl it the other day – it was impressive.

This Mother’s Day just hits a bit different – for many reasons. But just one of them is hearing my sweet boy say, “MaMa,” as if it’s one of his favorite words.

Two years ago I added, “MaMa,” to the list of names I answer to, but I can now confidently say it’s my favorite.

Maybe for you, your favorite name to be called isn’t MaMa – maybe it’s Mom, or Mommy, or Gramma, or what have you.

Whatever it is, I bet your favorite is the name that those closest to you call you…

… the ones your world revolves around.

… the ones who light up your smile and your life, filling your heart and your world with more joy and love than you thought possible.

So, on this Mother’s Day (which I’m aware was already a week ago – but, hey, in true mamahood fashion, I am running a little bit late), I hope you soak up each moment, savor each memory, and embrace the mamahood to which you’ve been called.