#Mom May 29

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One of the best leaders I know is Heather Hirt Miller and she just lost her MOM Ginger Hirt this week. Heather is the Director of Children and Youth Ministries at First Presbyterian Church in Lumberton NC.

Heather back in 2019 did a guest blog post on the “Life Lessons” her MOM taught her. I wanted to repost it in honor of Ginger.

Post by Heather Hirt Miller-February 12, 2019

I have a confession: I do not have a brain for science. This feels a little shameful to admit since I grew up in the atomic city of Los Alamos, New Mexico, with the National Laboratory as the main source of income. My friends were all children of engineers, biochemists, and physicists, and many of them have become doctors and professors.

My dad was one of those physicists who worked at the Lab. I learned a lot from him. His matter of factness about life helped shape how I think through problems to this day. I inherited his penchant for rational thinking. And thanks to his tutelage, I had some pretty good science fair projects over the years!

My dad and mom

But thanks to my mom, I grew up knowing that though my skill set may be different, it’s no less valuable. She doesn’t have a PhD, but she taught me by example how to jump into the puddle of life with two feet. If Dad taught me to measure the puddle and assess the risk of jumping, Mom taught me that getting wet is most of the fun.

So often intellectual ability is rewarded in our school years, and in life. Los Alamos High School offered a challenging curriculum, but still, many kids had to walk across the street to the community college to take classes because their academic needs were not being met. Let me boldly say that I did not once cross the street for class. Heather Hirt was a solid B student and proud of it.

One afternoon in the fall of my 7th grade year, I slunk home from school with my report card. I had received a C in science. Of all subjects in which the daughter of a physicist might earn a C, this felt downright wrong. Once I finally got up the courage to show my mom the grade, she shrugged and said, “If you did your best, you have nothing to be ashamed of. Grades aren’t everything.”

That was, and still is, the awesome thing about my mom. She valued traits other than those that are measured in standardized tests or on report cards. Sometimes a person’s “best” isn’t reflected in an SAT score.

Three lessons I learned from Mom, and to teach them, she never uttered a word. She just lived out her own truth in a place where her gifts were different. I watched. And learned. And followed.

My mom Ginger Hirt (on right) and daughter Betsie.

My Mom’s Three Lessons

Lesson 1: Live fearlessly. This was a woman who moved from her small town in Iowa to teach elementary music in the wild west of New Mexico, sight unseen. She was no stranger to courage and spunk. In her free time, she starred in numerous community theater productions. In my memory, she was never cast in the chorus. No sir. Ginger Hirt was always the star.

Lesson 2: Include everyone. Mom threw together the most creative birthday parties. Even her dinner parties had themes! And every Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter, we welcomed the “orphans” at our dinner table – those who had no family to visit during the holidays. She never worried about who would get along, or what was expected in a particular social setting. She just invited and set another place at the table.

Lesson 3: The journey matters more than the destination. She says she still doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up, so she’s made a career of trying a little bit of everything. When she went back to work after my sister and I were in school, she started as a tour guide at science museum and then became a secretary at the Lab. It wasn’t long before she realized her talents were better suited in something other than being a secretary. Later she wrote for a magazine in Santa Fe, then opened her own clothing store downtown. She co-wrote and directed an original musical at the middle school and taught chorus at the junior high. She is a published author of a mystery novel called “The Preacher’s Wife Drinks A Little”

Science is measured and calculated. This is not how Mom has lived her life. Sometimes a person’s truest self is not found in always following the rules, but in being unafraid to live out loud: to extend an invitation to a new friend; to fearlessly find your own spotlight; to explore new ventures. To use a science analogy, it’s the testing of the hypothesis, not the result, that matters in the end.

Thanks to Mom’s lifelong example, I have not been afraid to attend college in another part of the country; move to new states; start book clubs and play groups; try a variety of jobs; meet new friends; include the “orphans” at holidays; and even sing in a few musicals of my own.

There are different kinds of intelligence, different kinds of brilliance. Sometimes these traits are found in the smartest of scientists. But they are also found in the most courageous of individuals ~ the dreamers, the doers, the gracious hosts, the creators, the writers, the artists, the beautiful souls. I’m blessed to have learned from the best of both.

Love you mom!