What better way to celebrate Mother's Day than reflections from both sides of the mother-daughter coin via a new little e-book (available on Kindle/Kindle for iPad and Nook) + a little perspective on the origins of the holiday via a new post.
Years ago, as a single woman living in New York, I came home one night to a message on my answering machine, no mistaking my mother’s voice: “Close your windows, there’s something coming from Jersey.” Apparently some sulfurous vapor had been released into the atmosphere from, yes, New Jersey, and was headed straight to NYC. Humor aside, what may have been lost on me as the daughter testing her independence (if only a stone’s throw from the fold) was made ever so manifest the minute I found myself on the flip side of the mother-daughter coin. I may not leave LOL voicemails, but e-mails and text messages underscored by -worthy typos are part and parcel of the daily repartee with my daughter. Each year out on her own brings a new mix of freedom and frustrations; I get to observe both from afar, give only as much advice as I’m asked to give, breathe a little lighter as anxieties give way to healthy coping strategies; the more she takes care of herself, the better off we both are. And if I can’t protect her (forever), I can still remind her of my favorite line from The Runaway Bunny: “‘If you become a bird and fly away from me,’ said his mother, ‘I will be a tree that you come home to.’”
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