THANK YOU, MOM!

Mom and I at the beach. I have a look like,"Hey mom, I think you forgot my sunglasses!" Note the Kewpie doll hairdo.

My mom and I have always been close. As I sifted through our family photos, I couldn't help but notice that, most of the time, one of us was either draped around her neck or sitting on her! Here, I found mom to be a comfortable little perch.

On vacation. My brother, Jeremy, and I in our "Weather Tamer" windbreakers with Mom.

See what I mean? Poor thing! 3 little scaliwags hanging on Mom. How did she manage to still look so put together?

I still remember this photo op. It was hot and we were disgruntled....... Dad was probably saying,"Now, come ON! Smile!"

Mom minus anyone on her neck. Or lap. Or shoulder. Notice how much more relaxed she looks here?
Gardens of the Villa Borghese - Rome 2000.

You know, you've gotta admit it, there's only one person in life that you can claim you were never apart from for even 1 second for the space of 9 whole months. Think about it, how many people can stand that much togetherness with someone, no matter how much they love them? When you stop to consider it, Motherhood is nothing short of a miracle for a myriad of reasons. When I think about all that my mother has given, sacrificed and endured because of her love and commitment to me, it could make me want to just break down and cry. She went through physical pain in birth, getting up with me in the night when I was thirsty or sick, when I'd wet the bed or had a nightmare, and we're just talking my preschool years!

She has been there for me in my best moments, when I was exhilarated and on top of the world. But she has also been there for me through some of life's deepest disappointments and betrayals, things I felt sure I would never recover from. She has been there for me when no one else cared. When others who had pledged their undying support or love proved to be untrue or disappointments of gargantuan proportions. She has always had my best interests at heart and I have never had to wonder, even for a second, what kind of a self-serving angle or lie she was cooking up to take advantage of me. Her motives were always pure and unquestionable, because my success or joy was inextricably linked to her's, because of her love.

I firmly believe in what some people would term "karma" or what I call the law of sowing and reaping. Whatever you sow into the lives of others, either good or bad, it WILL reproduce in your life to a multiplied extent. It's inescapable and just the way things work. If that is true, and I believe it to be, then my mother is in store for a whole lot of wonderful things. Now, I am well aware not every child has such a friend, patroness, companion, nurse, teacher, comforter. But I DO. If I had nothing else in life, having a mom like mine would be enough to convince me that I was one of the most blessed people on the face of the earth. Happy Mother's Day, Mom. Thanks for making me feel so loved and giving me such a powerful reason to want to be even half the mother you've been to me to my own child one day!