All My Life

Today is my mother's birthday and, while I know many people love their moms, I feel that my relationship with my mother is special.  The story of my childhood is that, when I was a little, my mother began talking to me right away, telling me about her day, the world, speaking to me as her friend, a person she wanted to know, a person with whom she wanted to share her life.  


I grew up knowing what I had to say had value, and that my life was meaningful.  I knew early on that no matter what happened to me, no matter how poor some of my choices or how catastrophic some of my defeats, my mother was behind me in every single thing I did.


Abraham Lincoln wrote, "I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life."  My mother has prayed her whole life, as a little Catholic girl on her knees at school, when she taught my brother and I to say our prayers at night, and even now she prays every day for a better life for my brother and I, for my niece, for the world.  


All my life, I have known she was a good, kind, honest, funny, smart, strong woman, and I am happy to say that I think, now, after 59 years, she may finally know all of those things about herself.  The greatest gift she has ever given me is the knowledge that I can accomplish and survive anything.  I have always known I was blessed to know her and today--in celebration of her life--I wanted you to know her, too.


Happy Birthday, Mama.  I love you.