FEB 01, 2020 – Today marks 15 years since my larger-than-life mother passed on to become our Fairy Cardmother in the great beyond. These past few months, especially, I’ve missed her something awful because I know that, were she alive, I’d find her parked with fellow political junkie and my Miami Beach buddy, 96-year-old Hannlis, watching every last minute of the impeachment hearings, as well as the FOX/CNN/MSNBC rehashes into the wee hours after.

I admired what a true Independent my mother was … from life she always sought “truth and beauty.” Back in her day, she adored the late Texas Governor Ann Richards, who so famously and feistily said that George H.W. Bush had “been born with a silver foot in his mouth.” And she was also a fan of that first President Bush and his hope for a “kinder, gentler nation.” Mom referenced that quote so many times that I finally traced it back to his 1989 Inauguration speech; in context, it reads, “America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the Nation and gentler the face of the world.”

In the same address, the 41st POTUS declared, “My first act as President is a prayer. Heavenly Father,” he said, “make us strong to do Your work, willing to heed and hear Your will, and write on our hearts these words: ‘Use power to help people.’ For we are given power not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us remember, Lord. Amen.”

I wish I could adopt my mother’s more accepting, nonpartisan way, for I have felt very tense and tied to the outcome of the hearings, looking hard for the “truth and beauty” in it all. Last week I was so tangled up in it that I searched for something on the Buddhist concept of non-attachment — letting go of a desired outcome — and found this helpful Zen saying: “Consider the trees which allow the birds to perch and fly away without either inviting them to stay or desiring them never to depart. If your heart can be like this, you will be near to the Way.”

Inside our own beautiful willow tree card above reads, “This storm shall pass.” I know caring Cardies will send this card to soothe the many people who are struggling with challenges far greater than being a fit-to-be-tied Democrat. But I, for one, take comfort in its nurturing message, much as I know my mother would.

~ jodee stevens
founder & chief creative