Happy Mother's Day

Adulthood has many perks, but none so precious as the great relationship I am now able to have with my mother. It's just something that you can't have when you're a kid, a teenager, or even in your twenties. But once you're beyond that, it get easier and easier. For me, ever since I let go of the idea of my mother as an authority figure and embraced the idea of her as someone to have in my life because she's an adventurer, a great cook, fun to shop with, easy to relax with, always good for a lengthy and meandering phone call, sure to make good book and film recommendations, easy going, humane, loves jazz, has a lot to teach me about gardening, and knows how to laugh, I've just come to appreciate her in new and different way. Just look at those happy, dancing feet in the socks that I knit for her seventieth birthday! And guess who taught me to knit?

In my twenties, I used to still kind of cringe when people said they could see my mother in me and me in my mother. How, I thought, could I possibly be so like someone that old for one thing, and that mean, for another? Now, I like it. Twenty years later, she is no longer old and I can't even remember her being especially mean. People say I do that same little thing with my eyes, and that just warms me through and through.

Among my mother's many admirable qualities is her great big, forgiving heart. She is so forgiving that I am sure she will accept my deepest apologies for (a) not sending an anniversary card last week and (b) not sending a mother's day card either.

I love you, Mum!