Getting To Choose a New Mom

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored" in the aftermath of the most exhilarating Sweet Sixteen party ever! Spare is exhausted ... and no wonder. Dancing in the grass with her friends while a live band played classic rock was just awesome!

This fabulous party was made possible by my mom.

Wait a minute. My mom is dead. She's been dead since 2001!

Well, you see, my biological mother gave me one gift: life. That's an important gift. After that, living with her was a nightmare that I don't care to re-visit even in a therapist's chair.

One thing you learn, if you have a bad mom and you want a good mom, is -- you go looking for the mom of your dreams. I found mine six years ago. She owns a store called Woodstock Trading Company.

Everyone calls her Mom. She has a thriving business because every customer is made to feel at home (except for pesky shoplifters -- it is a business, after all).

Woodstock Trading Company, and Mom, played a central role in my paradigm change. The minute I walked into Woodstock for the first time, the balance of my being shifted. I left the store that day with my faerie, Princess. From the store have also come my other faeries -- Puck, Aine, and Chance.

It was these faeries who saw to it that I visited the store on the day that Mom and her staff fished a 10-day-old kitten out of the crawlspace beneath the floor. I took the kitten home to foster. He had an infection. I had the antibiotics on hand. He grew and developed nicely, and on Thanksgiving weekend 2008 he went to live in the store. He now weighs 17 pounds and is the happiest cat in Camden County.

Mom's gratitude to me for the life of this kitty has become a bond between us that is more warm and wonderful than anything I ever experienced with my biological mother. She scheduled a band on the lawn for Spare's birthday. She opened her store and her heart to all of Spare's friends.

Mom, please read this. You are my mother. I love you.