My Mother's Day Podcast Episode

Happy Mother's Day! Take a listen.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Mmm, Hello and welcome to anotherepisode of the Mark Medley Show. You

(00:44):
don't know who you're listening to.This is your host, Mark Medley.
Thank you so much much. Ihonestly do, sincerely do appreciate you.
I love what I do, andthat is to communicate with you, either

(01:10):
through this podcast or through my radioshow, or through my blog or on
my social media networks. I justlove being able to get a message across
and to be able to share withothers. Today's podcast episode is dedicated to
mothers because it is Mother's Day,believe it or not. And this is

(01:30):
one of the latest podcasts I haveever recorded, because normally I record earlier
in the day, and I madea promise on one of my social media
sites that before the day was out, I was going to get a special
Mother's Day episode on my podcast out. So this is it, even though

(01:51):
where I am it's like ten fortyeight pm because some things went on throughout
the day and I'm just getting achance to do it. But nevertheless,
my word was I was going toget it out before this day was out,
and I am doing just that.Today was Mother's Day. And I'll
tell you what before we even goany further. This particular episode is dedicated

(02:13):
to my mom, Jane Alden Bernard. That was her maiden name, and
then when she married my dad,she became Jane Medley. And unfortunately,
my dad passed away in nineteen eightyfive, and so at that time,
you know, ultimately a couple ofyears or three or four years later,

(02:34):
she married again, and then hepassed away, and then she ultimately married
again. So she's had some subsequentnames as well, but as far as
I'm concerned, she is still JaneMedley. So this episode is dedicated to
her, my mom, Jane AldenBernard Medley. And like I said,

(02:55):
she's had two other names, She'sBurnett as well as State. But my
last name is Medley. So thereforeI'm run to dedicated to her to sync
up our names in terms of hername last name being Medley, my last
name being Medley, and there's nodisrespect to her married name of Burnett,

(03:15):
no disrespect to her married name Stateis just for all intents and purposes.
For this particular recording, it isdedicated to my mom, Jane Medley.
So it is a Mother's Day podcast, and this is what I need folks
to understand, and my pastor saysit best, because that's not the way

(03:37):
I worded it, but the wayhe says that I really like it,
and that is the fact that Mother'sDay really is about commercialization. It really
is about the selling of cards andflowers and gifts and all. That's really
what has come to because the truthof the matter is Mother's Day ought to
be every day. While I certainlylove the fact that we commemorate, that

(04:01):
we acknowledge, that we pause tocelebrate the various days, whether his Mother's
Day, Father's Day, Black HistoryMonth and Women's History Month, Spanish,
Hispanic Heritage Month, or what happenedthat we pause to acknowledge them. I
think it's great, But the truthof the matter is it ought to be

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every day. Mother's Day ought tobe everyday. Father's Day, ought to
be everyday. Black History Month,ought to be every month. But it's
still good that we pause to acknowledgeand celebrate them, because the truth be
told, if we did not dothat for many, it would not be

(04:46):
done. For many folks. Theywould blow right by the fact that you
have African Americans in the country.For many folks, they would blow right
by the facts that we have mothers, that we have fathers, that we
have Hispanics, that we have peopleof color. For many of folks,
we would blow right by that ifwe were not forced to acknowledge the presence.

(05:08):
So I get it. We pauseto knowledge and celebrate mothers. The
Mother's Day cards that I gave mymother this year said I am the man
that I am because of you.That does not take anything away from my
father, because on Father's Day,I'm going to do a special Father's Day

(05:30):
podcast as well. Does not takeaway anything from him, but because of
my mom, I am the manwho I am. And this is one
of the things, because you allknow, if you've been listening to my
podcast any amount of time or whenit does release or when it does come
out, you know I'm the principleof a school. And the particular school
that I'm leading right now is inall boys leadership school, and I share

(05:54):
with the boys all the time wheneveryone else is going on a Mom is
going to be there when your friendsleave. Mom is going to be there
when you lose your job. Momis going to be there when your significant

(06:14):
other or your wife leaves. Momis going to be there. This I
know so the fact that we takethe pause to celebrate mom's I think,
is a wonderful thing. Now,this is the other thing we need to
understand in terms of because so manyyou know, kind of think, you
know, just having a baby iscute, or having babies like a doll

(06:36):
baby is something I get to dressup, something I get to show off,
something I get to take around,and you know, it's it's good.
But no, to be honest withyou, a child is not a
doll baby. A child is notsomething that you just show off. It
is a responsibility. And so thefact that a mother has a child at

(06:57):
is a great responsibility. I wasthere when both of my children were born,
When both of my natural born childrenwere birthed, I was there.
I saw both of them enter theworld. And that is some process.
It really is to sit there andto witness that, and to see that,

(07:18):
to see a part of a humanbody open up to a size that
normally it does not open up toand another human being come out through that
passage, that is something to watch. So I can only imagine that is
something to endure. I saw mychildren's mother at that time as she endured
the contractions we were there whenever thatmachine would show when another contraction was going

(07:43):
to hit. And she was atrooper because she gave birth without any drugs.
Even when the drugs was offered,she said no. She was an
absolute trooper. As those children inboth cases came out, she would take
the epidural, she would not takethe medication, She would not take that
needle. She pumped, for lackof a better term, pump both of

(08:09):
those girls out naturally with no medicationat all. And I was there watching
each time. It is something tosee as life comes about. Now me
because this is the thing. You'rebirth one of two ways. Either you
come through naturally or you are cutout. And when I say cut out,

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I mean by it's called Ciserian.I was born Cecerian, so I
was cut out of my mother wheneverI was you know, I actually was
supposed to be born in September,and I was born in August because the
umbilical cord was wrapping around my neckand the doctor said, if we don't
get this child out now, he'sgoing to be strangled. The umbilical cord

(08:54):
is going to choke him to death. So therefore we have to get him
out now. Otherwise as the motherand the child may die. And so
that's how I was birthed on Augustseventeenth instead of in the month of September,
which I was naturally supposed to be. Why I was what they would
call a pre me. I wasborn premature, and I was scerian because

(09:16):
the umbilical cord had wrapped around myneck. I'm saying all that, and
I'm sharing all that to say,motherhood is a serious responsibility, so as
fatherhood. It is not something tobe taken lightly. And the fact that

(09:39):
you are here means you had amother and you had a father. So
as the Bible can say, weneed to honor our mother and father.
So our days maybe long upon theland. And I'm gonna tell you now,
based on even some personal experiences thatI've had, that there are some
children biblically may not get to behere long upon the land because they're not

(10:01):
honoring their mother and father. AndI'm saying all that to say, things
happen, Yes, we understand it. We things happen, they do.
But as kids, we need tounderstand folks are doing the best they can
do at the time. Whatever mayhave occurred between your mom and you,
or your dad and you for thatmatter. And I'll talk to that on

(10:22):
a Father's Day, but for rightnow because his Mother's Day. Between your
mom and you, your mom wasdoing the best that she could at the
time. A few weeks ago,I was watching the show called Love Is
Blind and the contestants on their orthe actors or the characters or participants or
whatever they're called, I don't knowwhat they're called, but there were several

(10:45):
of them that had some serious issuesas whenever they were growing up. There
was this one particular character who sharedthat his mom was a stripper, and
he came to the realization, youknow what, she was doing the best
she could do at the time.She did whatever she needed to do to
be able to put food on thetable for me. So if that meant
being a stripper, then so beit. We need to understand because it's

(11:11):
real easy to be just judgmental,it's real easy to hate, it's real
easy to become estranged. But weneed to understand folks are doing the best
that they can do based on thetime where they are at that time.
So whoever you had, whether itwas a mother or a mother figure,
whether she did what you thought sheought to have been done, or whether

(11:33):
she didn't, She's still your mother. She still gave birth to you.
So therefore the fact that his Mother'sDay, and we have the opportunity to
celebrate moms, celebrate your mom oryour mother figure. Whether she was what
you thought she ought to have beenor not, she was still your mother.
She still gave birth to you.You still passed through either that canal

(11:54):
or either you were cut out.She carried you for nine months or less,
and in some instances maybe a fewdays more in that nine months.
Her body changed. In that ninemonths, things changed for her. As

(12:15):
she was carrying you. She wasn'table to eat the way she normally might
eat. She wasn't able to sitthe way she normally might sit. She
wasn't able to lay in the bedthe way she normally might lay in the
bed, because she was carrying you. And for you now to come out
and to disrespect, or to hateon or to judge, it's just not

(12:37):
right. So as we pause andcommemorate, because again I agree with my
pastor, Reverend doctor Kenneth Darryl RayClayton. I agree with him that it
really is about commercialization, because thisis my first time in a few years
that I actually bought a car tosend to my mom. Most of the
time I will hit her up ona text with a gift or either you

(12:58):
know, a mode or whatever.I will send her a happy Mother's Day.
But this year I decided, youknow what, I'm gonna go out
and getting cards. Are very expensive. They really are. Because I went
to Walmart and I bought four Mother'sDay cards, and those four cards came
to about twenty five dollars just forthe cards, not the additional items I

(13:20):
had in the basket. The cardsalone came to almost twenty five dollars.
They are expensive, But I decidedthis year I was gonna send my mom
a card, and that card said, Mom, I am the man I
am today because of you. Iam currently back in school pursuing a doctorate

(13:43):
degree. My mom graduated high school, my grandmother got to fifth grade,
and yet they were able to doand make things that I cannot even do
with all the education I had.They were able to make things work.
And that's one of the reasons whyI'm going back. That's because I,
to be honest with you, Idon't need doctor in front of my name.

(14:03):
I could care less about being calleddoctor. But just the fact that
my grandmother stopped at fifth grade,the fact that my mom got to a
high school education and then some furthercertifications for her jobs or whatever. The
fact that my grandmother would have beenable to say her grandson, the fact
that my mom can say my sonmade it to the doctor at level is

(14:26):
one of the reasons that I'm doingBecause I could, in all honestly care
less about being called doctor. Ireally just does not just does not do
it for me. It just doesnot turn me on just the fact that
folks will be able to call medoctor. I could care less, but
it does turn me on the factthat I would be able to say I
was able to do it because ofmy mom and my grandmom and my dad

(14:52):
and everybody else who put everything theyhad in to me. And as I
say, I am the principal ofan all boys school, and I tell
these boys all the time when everybodyelse leaves you. And I've seen it
as the mother as that child hasgotten into some trouble. I've seen the
mother come in as that child ifshe thought he was being bullied. I've

(15:13):
seen her come in. I've seenher and see again, I grew up
in terms of having the traditional momdad, But the majority of our folks,
particularly the kids that are served,are single parent homes. And I'm
not taking anything away from that.The fact that you're a single mom,

(15:35):
not taking anything away from that.If anything, my hat goes off to
you even more because I've had again, I've had things that were created for
dad and children, and I've hadmoms come to me and say, mister
Medley, my child father's not aslike, can't I come? And I've
had to tell that mother no,for this particular program, it has to

(15:58):
be a male figure. So goesoff even higher to the single mom.
So I get it. But wheneverybody else has gone, I've experienced it
for myself through two marriages that thatwent in a way that I didn't think
they were gonna go. I don'twant to necessarily say they failed, but
when wife decided to leave or Idecided to leave wife, mom was there

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when other failures came about. Momwas there when other things was happening in
my life. Mom was there whenI needed extra money. Mom was there.
So for so the lesson that Itry to help my young men understand
is that when everybody else is gone, Mom is gonna be there. If

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you get yourself into some trouble,Mom gonna be sitting with you in that
courtroom. And when you graduate orwhatever it is that you decide to do,
or you become a million and mother'smom is going to be there.
A friend of mine was talking tomy mom today and I told her,
I said, you know what,I know for the fact that you were

(17:03):
talking to my mom that and youwere talking about me, you were talking
about her favorite subject, you weretalking about her favorite topic. Mom is
going to be there. There isno love like a mother's love. I
know for a fact, because againyou know, I've been married a couple
of times now and and back outthere again. My kids, my biological

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children, they gravitate toward their motherway much more than me. Now,
they graviatory towards me, but theygravitate toward their mother way much closer than
they do to me. And man, you know, I get it.
That's mom. I get it.I have a sister who declares out that
my mother loves me more than herand it's not true, but she declares

(17:52):
out that she does. But Ican honestly and truly say that, no
matter what has been going on inmy life, my mother has been there.
God bless it. That's why I'mdedicating this episode to her. Because
she's eighty four now, God willing, October twenty six, she'll be eighty
five, but she has been therefor me, and that's why I'm dedicating
this episode to her, the Mother'sDay episode. Take time to appreciate your

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mom. Now. I know it'slate, this podcast is gonna go out
late today. So my prayer ismy hope is that throughout this day you
took the time to appreciate your mom. And if your mom is transitioned and
passed on, hey celebrate the memoriesof who your mom was and what she
did for you while she was here. I just told you my mom is

(18:45):
eighty four, God willing, she'llbe eighty five in October. But should
she not make it, and it'sgonna hurt, I know I'm gonna cry,
I'm gonna miss But at the sametime, I am so grateful and
thankful for what my mom did forme while she was here, because I
would not be where I am today. I would not be sitting in a

(19:07):
doctoral program. I would not bethe principal of a school. I would
not be the dad that I amto raising two biological children and two step
children. I would not have beenable to do that had it not been
for who my mom was and whatshe instilled in me and my sister when
we were children. And on Father'sday'm gonna say the same thing about him.

(19:29):
I had a father who was inthe house, so I'm gonna be
able to say the same thing abouthim on Father's Day. I would not
be the man that I am todayif it was not for my dad.
At the end of the day,I would not be the man who I
am today if it was not formy mom and my dad. But today
is Mother's Day, so that's whyI am honoring her today on Mother's Day.
And I encourage you that if youdidn't do so, because every day

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ought to be Mother's Day, Iget it. It's eleven o seven pm
where I am. So if youdidn't get a chance to do it today,
every day ought to be Mother's Day, you can do it tomorrow.
You can do it on Tuesday.You can do it on Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, and next Sunday. We don't need just one day,
but it's nice that we do setaside one. All Right, you

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know what, that's my Mother's Daypodcast for today. But please, I
do you know, hope that youcelebrate your mom. I'm gonna reiterate.
I'm gonna remind I'm gonna say itagain in your mind, if your mom
was not what you thought she oughtto have been, look at it this

(20:33):
way. She was doing the bestthat she could do with what she had
at that time. I'm gonna sayit again. She was doing the best
that she could do with what shehad at that time. She's still your
mom. The Bible says, honorthy mother and thy father, and thy

(20:55):
days shall be long upon the land. I don't know about you. My
plan is to be one hundred healthy, which you mean I got about another
thirty nine forty years to go.I'm gonna I keep honoring my mother.
And my father passed away in nineteeneighty five. I'm gonna keep honoring him
because I want my days to belong upon the land. And I also
know the contributions that they made tomy life that had it not been for
them, there would be no me. Had it not been for what they

(21:18):
instilled and taught me, there wouldbe no me. I would not be
able to sit here and communicate theway that I can and I do on
this podcast and on my radio showand in my blogs and everything else I
do had it not been for them. So with that being said, yes,
I give honor to my mom.This show is dedicated to her.

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On Father's Day, I'm gonna doa Father's Day podcast, it would be
dedicated to him, and my hopeand my prayers for you as you listen
to this, if you've listened tothis this far, that you pay tribute
to your mother as well, whethershe's here, whether she's gone, whether
she's what you thought she ought tobe, whether she wasn't, whether she
was, it will still your mother. Well, this concludes this episode of

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The Mark Medley Show. You cancatch me live on Saturday mornings on my
radio show, which is The ReadingCircle with Mark Medley. Tune in to
go brave dot org. That's gO b r a v e dot org.
You can catch me there from sixam to nine am each Saturday morning.
But I tell you what, ifyou really want to find out everything

(22:26):
you need to know about me,go to my website Mark A Medley dot
com. That's m A r cA M E ed l e y dot
com. That is the portal.That is the hub. You can get
to all my social media sites.You can find out about the radio show.
You can find out about my musicalwork. A matter of fact,
the background music that's playing in thisright now, our original compositions by me.

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You can find out about that.You can find out about my blog,
you can find out about the schoolthat I lead. So go to
mark A Medley dot com and itis all there. That is the portal.
It's even eight hundred number you canget in cut in touch with me,
leave a message because I don't pickthat number up. But leave a
message and ultimately I will get backto you. But again that's mark A.

(23:10):
Medley. That's m A r cA M D l e y dot
com. That is the portal.You can catch me live on Saturday mornings
on Brave New Radio eighty eight pointseven f M Radio and we are streamed
around the world on go brave dotorg g O b r a v e
dot org. If you go onthere on Saturday mornings from six o'clock am

(23:34):
to nine eight o'clock am Eastern time. You can catch me live there.
I have truly enjoyed recording this podcast. It is my Mother's Day podcast,
And to all the moms out there, I hope you truly had a wonderful
Mother's Day. What I told thefolks at my school, and this is
kind of like it was in myhouse growing up on Mother's Day, my

(23:56):
mom didn't have to do anything.Either me and my sister and my dad,
we did everything for whether it wascooking or whatever. She didn't have
to do anything. So what Itold my teachers at the schools, listen,
if you are a female and hisMother's Day, whether you're a mother
or not, don't do anything onSunday. If you have a significant other,
a spouse, or a child inthe house, they are to do

(24:17):
everything for you on Mother's Day.So I hope that was the case today,
that everything was done and mom didn'thave to do anything today. Again,
get in contact with me. Youcan call an eight hundred number,
leave a message. I get backwith you. It's marked a Medley dot
com M A R C A MD L e Y dot com. It's

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been an absolute pleasure recording this episodeHope you are blessed by it. Hope
you're challenged by it. Hope you'reinspired by it. Hope you are entertained
by it. Hope you're motivated byit and so many other things. But
do share it, pass it along, and again, I thank you, M and