Happy Birthday to the best mother in the whole world – MY MOM.  She is a quiet warrior who loves her family and friends deeply with loyalty and sincerity. She loves God, loves alternative medicine, Whole Foods, and bottled water. She loves my jewelry, always wears it, and will tell anyone who asks about it.

But her greatest strength is that she LISTENS. She will stop anything she is doing, sit down and listen to what I have to say – she always has. She doesn’t barrage me with her opinions (even though if asked she has an opinion on everything) but she restrains and just listens.

She sets a high standard for me as a mother. Often I find myself multi-tasking or wanting my opinion to be heard.  And then I picture my mother, sitting at the kitchen table as I come home from school flinging my backpack and rehashing the details of the day (some stories that send her reeling inside I’m sure). She restrains a mother’s desire to meddle – instead she just pauses her life and listens. The older I get I realize how hard it is to pause life, listen and restrain. Happy Birthday to a Mother who lives those words so well that she makes them look effortless.