archive: June, 2009

13.

thirteen years ago today i became a mother. after a triumphant and transformative home birth, circled by wise and expert midwives, my daughter quietly entered the room. not a sound from her lips. i told her how much i loved her, welcomed her and brought her to my chest. she gazed right through me and slowly pinked up and found her way into her body. she remained quiet for the first couple of days, and on the mellow side for her first few months. that was no indication of who she would become.

my thirteen year old girl is brilliant and beautiful and anything but quiet. she shines on stage and is the dramatic presence in our home. exuberant. full of life. confident and sassy. don't even try to argue with her about what happened to her hairbrush. and you best run your outfit by her before leaving the house. she'd like to star on broadway and attend harvard law simultaneously. she'll seriously freak you out with her mad math skills. and don't even get me started on the napoleon dynamite expressions.

she makes me think. she makes me laugh. she makes me better.

when she was about a year and a half old, i taught her to repeat a mantra. she would proudly puff up and say "i am smart! i am strong! and i am beeeeaaaauuuuutiiiifullllll!" i think it worked. because she is all of these things and so much more.

lookout. she's a teenager now. and i am wide open, ready and deeply in love.