For my mother, who gave me life and continues to give me INSPIRATION. I LOVE YOU. And for my sisters who are mothers and my sister-friends, too. The photo is my niece Zoe a couple years ago. It's Mum's favourite. I've made notecards for her, and a canvas tote bag with this image. I wrote the following piece while thinking of my childhood. :-) H.
May you have the experience of making homemade bread with your mom even when store bought is faster.
May you go barefoot in the summer and know what it's like to have tough feet before starting back to school.
May you watch kittens being born and babies, too.
May you chase after fireflies in the summer's night breeze.
May you experience playing in the heat of the summer to appreciate a cold popsicle--made in a paper cup with apple juice. And may you discover that papaya popsicles are yucky.
May you experience the cold of winter playing in the snow, to thaw out your hands in front of a warm fire with a cup of hot chocolate--the real stuff. And may you gather the firewood that makes the fire.
May the electricity go out during a storm so you know what it's like to have soup made on a wood stove & eaten by candlelight.
May you have time just to play without rushing through a schedule of extracurricular activities.
And may you not have your own TV in your room so you learn to share & negotiate; and may your TV time be limited so that you can use your own imagination.
May you climb trees and walk through woods and grow tadpoles from a pond.
May you be allowed to play in the dirt & eat mud pies and splash in mud puddles without fear of germs.
May you hear “no” every once in a while. May you be allowed to cry, get angry, not have your way all the time and know that you are still LOVED.
May you write thank you notes to grandparents even when you don't appreciate the maroon and pink plaid polyester pants.
May you have to sit through church & snicker with your siblings to get the hairy eyeball from your mom in the choir.
May you be given chores to contribute to the household even when it's easier for Mom to do it. And may you have to clean your own room & make your own bed.
May you learn to make your own breakfast, even if the eggs are crispy and the pancakes are runny on the inside and charred on the outside.
May you learn to mend a hem and sew on a button.
May you have to do your own laundry when you become a teen-ager, so you don't learn the painful lesson not to add a red sock to a white load when you get to college.
May you have to eat dinner together at home more often than at a restaurant. And may you have to take three bites of food you think you don't like.
May you have a garden and may you eat cherry tomatoes off the vines that make up your own jungle.
May your first car be a clunker and you run out of gas. May you learn to change a flat tire--wearing white in the rain. ;-)
May you keep the joy of learning even when school is not fun.
May you remember the good times, and laugh at the bad. And may all those life experiences bring you closer to the ones you love.
