Happy Birthday!

It is my mom's birthday today (Feb. 26th), which means that it is my birthday tomorrow (boo....I HATE birthdays......). In my humble opinion (and experience), I think I can say that mother-daughter relationships are Complicated. By "Complicated," I don't mean that they are messed up or bad in any way. They are just Complicated, even if they are also Loving and Warm and Special. My mother and I are certainly not exceptions to this rule. Not by a long shot. However......

I would like to thank my mom for some things. The rest of this entry may seem cheesy and cliche and like a Miss America pageant, but I think it's safe to say that my target audience here is only one person.

I would like to thank my mom for teaching me about beauty and art. I would like to thank her for teaching me that it is OK to take care of myself and stand up for myself. I would like to thank her for never judging my spiritual explorations, even when it meant that I accidentally spilled wax all over the carpet after leaving the candle burning a little too long during meditation. I would like to thank her for the care packages that she would send me when I was homesick, and for always listening to my poetry. I would like to thank her for the time that she had to wire money to me in Vienna because my stuff had been stolen on the night train. I would like to thank her for the time that she came to the airport to give me my car keys because my purse had been stolen in New York and my flight just happened to be stopping through Minneapolis on the way to Phoenix. I would like to thank her for teaching me to trust that things always end up working out. I would like to thank her for reminding me that borrowing trouble, and worrying about things that haven't happened yet, is a waste of time and precious energy. I would like to thank her for not getting mad at me after I crashed the car into the side of the garage before I even got my driver's license. I would like to thank her for taking care of my grandmother when she got sick. I would like to thank her for coming to my graduation from grad school, even though she had a million difficulties in her own life at that moment in time. I would like to thank her for being an amazing example of how to be a good listener.

Happy birthday, Mommy. I love you!!