today is mother's day. it occurred to me that there's a very good chance that i'll be a mother one day, so i started thinking about things i want my children to know.
if i ever have a child, i hope they:
treat time & moments as more precious than dollar bills and shoes.
understand that people's hurt often finds its way to the eyes, there it rests-- waiting to be seen. i want them to understand this so that they can read another's story of pain & hold their pained gaze in their own. to reflect compassion & understanding to the eyes of pain. to recognize the beauty of a story & the importance of them being told.
make the decision to let all of life in. to take the entire world into their arms, even though that means inevitable hurt. to hold this world in all its glory, suffering, beauty & entirety close to their hearts & let it teach what it must.
when they do get hurt-- because a truth of life is that us humans hurt each other quite often-- i hope they view their rising as unique as their own finger print. i hope when their hearts get broken in the hands of another, they rise for themselves & themselves alone. i hope they know it is brave to entrust your heart to another. i hope that when they are let down, they never lose a relentless hope that there's still good.
i hope they go places alone: countries, bars, diners, car rides. this is how you connect with yourself & meet hearts you wouldn't any other way. i hope they are at home when they are alone with themselves. i hope they decorate their souls in a way that honors their unique selves.
i hope they get to a point where they know their own worth like the words of their favorite song. i hope they only accept love from those who have learned the lyrics to their worthy selves. i hope settling never takes them captive.
i hope loving selflessly is like breathing. even if breath is staggered.
i hope they learn the sometimes necessary painful exhale of letting go.
i hope adventure becomes a dear, old friend & they have memories that could write books.
i hope they lose themselves in the moment & embrace every smell, sight & embrace.
i hope this world's beauty never becomes routine. i hope the sky is a different painting every morning. i hope they notice the leaves on the trees & how they know when to fall & when to grow back.
i hope they notice.
i hope they learn how to use their muscles to hold them up. especially their hearts.
i hope they know they have the ability to cultivate change in a world set in its ways. i hope they disrupt the way of things.
i hope their first drink is with me.
i hope they know they can walk to me with any doubt, fear, regret or pain & know my first response will be: you are mine & all of you is worth love.
i hope honesty is their heart beat: nourishing how they love, how they hold another in their arms, how they leave, how they travel, how they speak, who they are.
maybe most of all, i hope they dance. when there's music, when there's silence, when they don't feel like they can, when they're in the arms of another or the arms of themselves.
if i ever have children, i hope this world becomes their canvas & that their wild imaginations set it on fire until a wild fire changes it all.
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