MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS

The irony is that Mothers' Day was only a week ago. 

I watched as the young lady was lured into a corner of the room by the older lady. At first, I didn't think anything of it. I thought, perhaps the old lady may have wanted to give the young lady a gift, or well wishes before she left the gathering. The young lady is kind and conscientious; talented, smart, and pleasant. The old lady is progressively proving to be messy, petty, and insecure. She was doing a poor job of whispering but a great job of sowing seeds of discord. The young lady said nothing, but it was clear that she was uncomfortable, yet trying to be respectful. The older lady's "advice" was motivated by her extreme disappointment over her own daughter's recent decision to relocate thousands of miles away from her. With a sly smile, she counseled the young lady to, among other things, limit the amount of time she spent with, and talked to her mother. I could hear her. All I could think about was Eve talking to the serpent in the Garden. I stood up. 
Why would a woman who has a daughter of her own, try to drive a wedge between another woman and her daughter? Fortunately, the young lady's mother walked in, discerned what was going on based on her own history with the old lady, and whisked her perplexed daughter away. The old lady didn't quite know what to do with herself. She stood there in the corner, wringing her hands, and not seeming to know which direction to look. Her scheme failed. She just stood there, defeated. 
The young lady and her mother had a frank discussion about what happened. Their closeness and trust in each other easily cancelled out what the older lady had tried to do. Any respect the young lady had for the old lady vanished in an instant, but because of her kind heart it was replaced by pity.

Some people are truly evil. You don't want to believe it, but it's unfortunately true.

My hope is that the old woman would examine herself, recognize how greedily and regularly she feeds on strife; see how it has poisoned her tone, infected her conversation, skewed her thinking, and marred her demeanor, posture, countenance, and relationships. She has become positively toxic--almost unbearable to be around. She wasn't always that way. I wonder what happened. I hope that one day she figures out the root of her frustration, insecurity, and hatred and stops justifying her conniving, imposing ways. She flippantly commented that she recognizes that she's "different" and has stopped caring about what people think of her. She was right about one thing. She has stopped caring. She has forgotten how to treat others. She bulldozes through life wanting love and respect, but receiving indifference. What she is, sadly, is deceived. Her icy, curt, snippy speech does little more than repel others (including her daughter) and force them to keep their guards firmly up, and locked. 
Maybe seeing the young lady interacting with her mother, smiling, laughing, and happy was too much. How tragic that she continues to talk and act her way into never experiencing what they have.