When I was growing up, the Vietnam-born son of Vietnamese refugees resettled in Australia, my parents often told me Vietnamese parables – short stories conveying wisdom collected through the ages.

I will share with you one. This one told to me by my Mother (but never my Father):

“The adult son comes home. He is rude to his elderly mother [for some reason I cannot remember]. Seeing his insolence, the mother chastises the adult son by paddling him with a stick. As the chastisement is being administered, the mother sees that the son has tears in his eyes.

She is puzzled by this and so she asks him: ‘Son, why are you crying? I am old and feeble. I cannot strike you with much force. What hurts you so?’

Wiping the tears from his eyes, the son replies: ‘Mother, I am crying because it hurts me to see you so old and feeble, and not as healthy and vibrant as you once were.’

It is my Mother’s birthday today, 10th October, and as the years go by, I have come to understand and appreciate this parable my Mother told me many moons ago. Sometimes, it’s the little things, said often enough, that makes the greatest impact.

Happy birthday Mum!