A Mother's Day Wish

To my daughters on Mother's Day.

I remember the day both of you were born.

Alexis in June. A warm (very warm for this city spread out across the rolling plains) summer's night. Thursday. Safe and secure in the womb, you were late arriving. I remember the moment I heard your first cry. You were still inside me. The doctor was performing a C-section and you cried before he'd ever lifted you out. I remember feeling my heart break open as a powerful wave of love washed over me. It was like nothing I had ever experienced. I remember being absolutely terrified to take you home from the hospital. Didn't they know I wasn't capable of taking care of such a miracle? Didn't they know I might drop you?

You were a quiet baby. Content. Always serene. You loved being held. Loved being able to observe whatever was going on. Did I mention you were a perfect baby? You were tiny, 5lb 11 oz. The nurses told me to wake you every 4 hours to feed you when I took you home. But you never wanted to be woken up. So, I let you sleep. From the first night you came home you slept 6 hours, then 8. Now that's perfection!

It is the legacy of your life. Perfection. Perfectly human in all your imperfections. Perfectly miraculous in all your being.

My winter baby Liseanne burst into the world on a cold, very cold, Saturday afternoon in January. We were expecting you on Valentine's Day but you didn't want to wait. There was too much living going on, out there, in the wide, wild world of wonder you create with every breath.

Impatient. Impetuous. Impervious to cautionary voices willing you to slow down, take your time, think about it before you do it. You carve a path of your own, pushing aside fear, leaning into the wind. You travel with gusto on the road of life, blazing a trail for all to follow, if they dare. I remember holding you in my arms, your sister beside me, the both of us staring with awe at your perfect being. You didn't want to be held. You wanted to get rolling.

I remember you trying everything first for Alexis, showing her where it was safe, warning her of impending disaster. Forever sprightly, a beautiful dancing fairy lighting up the night with her shining radiance and brightening the day with her fearless quest to live wildly on the lighter side of living.

My daughters, you have taught me what love is. You have taught me how to love. You have taught me to see the wonder in every moment. The story in every unfolding of the day leading to night.

Remember 30 seconds to tell a story about someone walking down the street? Or how we'd lie under a tree, staring up into the branches at the sky far, far above and whisper the tales of the WindStory Tree? Remember throwing eggs and dancing around the fire singing "Who are the witches, where did they come from?"

Remember wandering through the tombstones in the graveyard at the end of the street where Opa and Nana lived? And the stories we told of the people who lay in peace as we sat upon a velvety blanket of grass, surrounded by the whispering trees and birds calling?

Remember Easter Sunday at Granville Island, Liseanne with bunny ears and her basket of tinfoil covered eggs? Alexis and Vickie standing by laughing in wonder at her courage to walk amidst the throngs of people gathered on the steps, inviting them to have an Easter Egg.

Remember Tofino? Remember the fairy dancers sparkling on the water, the stories written in the sand awaiting your morning walk?

Remember dress-up and dancing in the night as if no one was watching and singing loud as if no one could hear?

Remember laughing meditation and waterfalls. Remember joy and tears and even sorrow.

This is life. Our life. Memories lovingly crafted upon the beauty of each day enriched by the wonder of you. This is my life. The one where you have spilled the paint pots all over the rug and danced barefoot in the brilliant hues spread out before me. This is my life to which you have added beautiful, golden threads of joy and laughter and all the colours of the rainbow.

You are life, my lovely daughters.

You are love.

I am blessed to have been given the gift of you both in my life. I am blessed to have been shown the path into the dancing light of joy where love shimmers in a vibrant rainbow of colour and life expands in wonder with every breath.

In your lives entwined with mine, I have been given the gift of ever-lasting love.

Thank you. I am blessed to be your mother.

For all mothers I wish you a day of rainbow colours. A life of vibrant hue from light to dark and back again. I wish you a world of never-ending joy where you are free to dance in the circle of love that connects you to the mother who gave you the gift of life and the mother who gave her hers and the mothers before her. We are all connected through the daughters who walk before and after us.

This is the circle of love into which we are born when we are first conceived within our mother's womb. This is the circle of love that sets us free to live upon the sands of time, dancing in the waves of love everlasting. This is the circle of love that gives us the gift of our lifetimes.

Happy Mother's Day!