Life's like that!

Nora Roberts
If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.

There I was sulking away, and the mother was in no mood to ask me why, I guess with having to look after three kids, who were just two years apart, was a tough task. My brother who is the youngest and my sister the eldest I was the " middleman",shall we say middlegirl, besides I was always seeking answers to orders that the "Authorities" gave out, which in most of the cases, I got a telling off or sometimes just a case of the wind blowing on their ears kind of a situation.
I remember my sister and brother coaxing me to go and ask for the permission to go to the party.We nearly always lent support to each other, I was mortified. Not so much at encountering my mother who in turn would ask the "Higher" up my Dad in this case, but it was my inability to hear a "NO" from them that was pulling me back.
After so much of debating and brooding ... I mustered the courage to ...ask,
I tried strategy at first went around the house and cleaned it up dusted, folded placed everything in an order and then was step two..wow ! this surely was looking good"Why oh, why did I go through so much when all this was so easy?" was the thought that came to my head.
Like all mothers, mum saw thru my ploy and asked me straight off"What is it you want? ( " "'Here, here quickly open up mother earth swallow me" )I stammered and fumbled "Oh nothing Mom, just doing my share of good deeds," she went about her business like she did not know anything, but was it so ? Mothers have that uncanny sense and a million eyes placed all over them so they "see" every wince of pain, or every snigger, that happens, it was no different here with my Mum, a truimphant sign of victory to my siblings, signalled that I was drawing closer to my goal.
Just then the phone rang and Mum picked it up "Hello, blah, blah blah, more blah blah and there I was my ears placed to get the maximum coverage of the sound waves, 'Ah thank goodness it was the opposite neighbour and her regular downloading on Mum about the milkman and the paperboy and ... and .. and she was gone for a long while.Mum looked at me and said,"Can you please give a hand to Aunty S, she needs help with her shopping," before mum could finish I had dressed up and thought this is the moment ... "You know mum I wanted to know if I could go to M's party on the week end ? She turned around like she had been struck by lightning and said "Why not ?" "Oh, er.. I was taking your permission," "Surely you can but I have to ask Dad, if it is fine with him" ... do you know what it feels like to be an inflated balloon thats just got pricked by a pin? well I did......
To cut a long story short, I did get my permission and I did enjoy myself ... and so many years later now a mother myself, I know that if I did not ask the answer would have been No , and if I did not go after my goal, I would have been just there sulking and brooding, This is a simple example, but many a times have applied to the larger picture in life.