DEAR MOM
Dear Mom,
Today I cleaned my apartment
and I pulled from my bookshelves
an old diary covered with dust.
I took a break from my work
to spend a few minutes
re-reading some of the passages
I had written years ago.
But, the minutes
stretched into hours
as I poured over the cramped
and smeared handwriting of my yesterdays.
Memories flooded my head
and my heart
as a passage here and there
caught my eye.
I only wrote about the events
of the day
and nothing special ever happened.
But I was living and growing and changing.
And only occasionally
I mentioned you.
“By the way –
Mom fixed a great supper tonight.”
Then I’d say no more. The passage would end
and I’d move on to another day –
another week.
“I forgot Mom’s birthday yesterday.
I wonder if she noticed.”
Now the years have passed
and they find me all grown up,
living on my own, and being
self-sufficiently independent.
But I’m sitting on the floor softly crying –
crying for all those days
of frustrations, of angers,
of misunderstandings.
But I’m smiling too, because
Mom, you’re beautiful
and I love you.
And I ache inside for
wanting to tell you –
for all those times
I may have forgotten
or failed to notice.
And, is it really fair to take
only one day of the year
to say Happy Mother’s Day?
I know that a mother is thanked
many times over
when she sees her children
happy, healthy, and productive.
But these returns seem
so inadequate a thanks
for all those special gifts
a mother gives her children.
So, Mom, let me say again, I love you.
And knowing that love
is God’s most sacred gift
to humanity,
I give you all I have.
Happy Mother’s Day
today,
and all your tomorrows.