May 13, 2012 – Loved by the King

I gave my mother a book of poems I had written expressly for her in 1986. She made me promise to write a new poem to go in that book each year. It has been our tradition since that day and with very few exceptions, I have kept that promise.

Image Credit: http://tahasin13.blogspot.com

This year is full of new emotions for me now that I am a grandmother. Family has always been important to me, but now it’s like I live and breathe it more deeply that ever before. I am learning to savor every single moment and to be thankful for gestures that I might have missed in the past — little things, such as Martin calling me “an amazing woman” in a Facebook post, or when Steven touches my shoulder before we part, or how Claire rushes out of the house on her way to school but doubles back just to tell me that she loves me. Grateful doesn’t even begin to describe what I feel.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers –to those that bore children and raised them, to those that bore children and gave them a different life than you could give them yourself through adoption (for it was by that gift that I became a mother), and to all those who “mothered” children they did not bear and by your presence in those lives, have made the world a better place.

FOR THE LOVE OF YOU

For My Mother, Linda Hall

At fifty, I am a mother, grandmother, and a daughter

Who now sees you with eyes

That have been opened to your secrets.

I now know the depth of your love and sacrifice.