Happy Birthday, Mom!

Over the years, I have written several letters and poems honoring my mother - for her birthdays and for Mothers Day.

Mom has kept them, tucked into a drawer at her bedside to reread when the mood takes her.

They run the gamut from childish scribbles of "Roses are red and violets blue, I couldn't have a mommy more wonderful than you" to the dramatic leaps of adolescent angst and imagination to the "now I understand your sacrifices" sentiments of a young mother to the quieter sentiments of our post-9/11 lives. Today I will once again take pen in hand and honor the woman who gave me life, who raised me with tenderness and sterness as needed, who taught me the values of honesty and integrity and hard work, who lived an example of grace and strength that I emulate in my times of trials.

Happy birthday, mom! I love you!