A MOG Fairytale

Hello Readers. Are you all tired of reading about KonMari???? Well, I decided to write a post for MOGS (Mothers of the Groom). I’ve been getting some clicks on my MOG posts and wanted to send a satirical fairy tale to some of my new readers. It’s complete fiction, but there’s a good lesson at the end. Enjoy!

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Once upon a time and long ago….

There was a wise old woman who lived in the woods.

Life was good in the forest. It was quiet among the trees. And it was peaceful living with Mother Nature’s presence as far as you could see.

Then one day everything changed.

Without warning, the old woman’s childhood fairy godmother appeared for the first time in decades. The beloved and never forgotten godmother gently tapped the old woman’s shoulder. And then, she whispered something so wonderful and so wanted in the woman’s ear.

“You are going to become a MOG at the snap of my fingers!”

Every mother with a son hopes for the title of MOG: Mother of the Groom! It was definitely what the woman prayed to hear all those years. She could only dream of the day when a beautiful young princess would grace her beloved son’s days on this earth with an abundance of love and life.

So all was well in the countryside of weddingland. The woman could hardly wait for the big day in the matrimonial meadow.

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From an early age, the woman was taught a good MOG had only 2 important duties: Keep Quiet and wear BEIGE!

As she ran from merchant to merchant in the neighboring hills to find just the right fabric to sew her MOG frock (beige, of course), she wondered just how long she really would have to uphold the second vow: To keep quiet.

Wearing beige was easy. Keeping quiet, not so much.

The newly minted MOG – filled with pure happiness and uncontrollable excitement – really wanted to join in the fun and frolic leading up to the ceremony. But she was never invited to participate. And as the bride-to-be and her merry maids gathered flowers in the meadow for the wedding, the MOG only watched the merriment through the branches of the thick trees without being noticed. Keep Quiet she reminded herself.

Now this wise woman who was advanced in age had experienced a whole lot of life. She knew a lot about a lot. She considered herself wise and worldly when it came to people, places, and most of all, pageantry.

But was she really wise? Or was she just a silly ole’ soul? Did her wants and wishes for her son’s perfect princess overtake the reality of continually being shunned and shut out of every part of planning and preparing…while only being acknowledged when asked to hand over her silver and gold coins to pay for goods she never, ever saw? And even more sad, the MOG was delighted to help in any way.

This MOG truly felt that unconditional love and support would win over this wayward wench. So the MOG made the new couple lots of pieces of furniture out of indigenous wood from her own backyard. She paid the local silversmith to forge new plates and cutlery for the future newlyweds. And she even gave up her most prized possession – her wooden wagon and old horse – so the young couple could move about the forest with ease.

Many fortnights came and went when the MOG finally realized her folly. Invisibile. Unwanted. Never invited. Keep Quiet, no more….she decided.

The woman was not wise, in the least. She was an imbecile who wanted to believe that keeping quiet was the right thing to do. With an equal dose of embarrassment and resentment, the old woman confronted the young princess after many months of sunrises and sunsets.

“You are most unkind,” said the hurt old woman.

“How could you be so greedy and so ungrateful?”

After minutes of uproarious laughter, the young ingenue gathered herself to scoff at the broken, old woman, “How could I what??? How could YOU be so stupid? And for so, so long?“

“I never invited you to my berry-picking party with my people, and I didn’t even show up to your village festival you held in MY honor! Did you not get the hint – you foolish, pathetic woman?”

“When I did show up in your neck of the woods, I never once acknowledged you. In fact, I ignored you! I never even uttered a single word in your direction. And what went through your mind when I made fun of your homemade beige dress on the day of the wedding in front of all my maids and matrons?!”…..so don’t blame ME… You kept rewarding my abhorrent behavior with wedding gifts, you pitiful person! “

Despite all of the sadness brought about BEFORE, DURING, & AFTER the wedding, the MOG had already begun to love the young girl as her daughter. Or perhaps, the delusional MOG loved the idea of having a daughter-in-law.

Those unfortunate and cruel words were the last spoken between the MOG and the beautiful princess.

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A few weeks later, the battered old woman sat on a tree stump overlooking a crystal blue lake just a stone’s throw from her cottage. And again, without warning or the chance to think twice, her cherished fairy godmother sat next to her to give her words of wisdom.

“In the world’s timeline, you are only allowed to live in these earthly woods for a very short period. Do so with never-ending kindness and generosity. The biggest human tragedy is when a woman is about to breathe her last breath..only to realize she spent her precious time down here spreading hate, hurt, and harm.”

The fairy godmother explained that when a kind person leave this earth, her goodness and graciousness surrounds the left-behind loved ones until their end of time…..but when an evil person leaves this world, the only trace of their lives is a small black moth who flies alone.

“I’ve never seen a black moth,” said the tired old woman.

“Exactly”, replied the fairy godmother. “Unnoticed. Totally forgotten. Never remembered.”

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And so it goes…. the now much older woman continued to love and to give until she left the forest forever…..well, that is….until she returned as the newly assigned fairy godmother for a very special little girl in the woods.

The END.

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To all the MOGs out there who might need the diversion of a good fairytale (and a glass of champagne) right about now.