I wrote this poem to my daughter on her thirteenth birthday. Every day since she was born I have been blessed to look into her eyes, and each time I do I discover and rediscover who I am as a mother.

Sweet O of your baby mouth

Pink gummy smiles, sepia eyes

Seeming to reflect the wisdom of other lifetimes lived

Grasping my finger in your tiny hand

I prayed you'd never let go.

Little girl in scuffed sneakers

Glorious curls that I twirled

Quietly, tenaciously you found your place, took root

These wind borne parts became whole

The picture was complete.

Girl, woman, you are as I imagined you

The bright opus who flowered under my heart

Defining your destiny in a world now so much bigger

Than we dreamed

When you skipped your small stones across the water.

And I who loved you first can watch you grow

Can watch you go into this immensity of life

Adrift in this new space and place I find myself

Until I look into your ocean eyes

And find the shore.