Happy Birthday....

To the woman who has most influenced my life (even before I knew it...why are we always the last to know?)

My Mother.

My mother taught me how to sing, embroider, sew, knit, bake, cook (and then bake and cook with alternative ingredients) meditate, and quilt. My mother has always struggled with her own creativity (which I did not know until I was an adult...but who seemed to be always prolifically creative) and never put a damper on our creativity...but always nurtured it with joy and excitement, and love.

My mother has always listened with a good ear, and has dolled out amazing advice and wisdom...as seemingly everything that could happen to a person has happened to her one time or another. She has taught me how to listen, and search for answers, she has taught me the art of empathy (of which I practice daily and still struggle) My mother knows me better than anyone else on this planet and truly sees me for who I am...even before I do. She has impacted my life in ways I may never know...

My mother was a spontaneous woman who grabbed us many summer days when I was a child, ran to get a bucket of chicken (back when she wasn't eating raw food...cause a bucket of raw chicken may not be too good to eat on a picnic) more foods, our friends...and piled us all in the car so we could run to Sedona and play in the water all day long...Those were amazing lazy and joyful days (this is back when it was free to park all day and free to do almost everything) Before that, we all used to pile in the car and go to the beach or the park...

My mother has supported every dream or whim I have had. Be it music, art or school...by finding lessons, equipment or various supplies...and, when I changed my major in the last 2 years of college, she was nervous, but stood by and cheered me on as I followed yet another passion, and smiled huge as I kicked ass. She helped me start Snap Snap in 1995...she has always been an amazing cheerleader for me.

My mother has overcome a lot of her family stories, changed them and then made new better ones...She has not let anything in her life hold her back from trying...My mother and I both have struggled head on with some of these challenges side by side like true warriors, only to come out the other side battered and bruised, but stronger and with even more love. We have faced painful things together and alone...we learned how to hug each other when I was in college...

My mother is never afraid to try new things (and if she is, she doesn't show it) not, only that? The woman learns everything she can about a subject...and then shares that knowledge freely...she is both courageous jumping out in the front-lines of new things like a true leader, and when something isn't working? She just figures it out...and doesn't stop searching until she has the answers...She's also not afraid to support us when we try new things.

My mother is a voracious reader and lover of all things in print...there are books laying about her house everywhere, there always has been...shelves, boxes and stacks of books...There are papers and notes...I love to read, but she reads a lot more than I do...But you know what? She's never afraid to share a good book...although, there have been many times when there were the 3 girls living at home, and all reading the same books...so, there was hiding and hijacking of said books. The library has sometimes been a second home to us. She read out loud to all of us as children, and the other day, I was over and she was reading yet again from another book to me outloud...it's hard to concentrate though, because the sound of her voice being used that way always relaxes me.

My mother also has a wonderful sense of humor...we are more often than not, laughing uproariously about one thing or another...We make jokes and are totally silly and ridiculous...we talk A LOT...it's next to impossible to get a word in edgewise when we all get together...but, it's fun to try. We are master story tellers when any of us eventually get the floor....Humor is the perfect mechanism for a butt in during those conversations, and is wielded with an experienced hand by everyone in the family...I don't know if we could ever go on tour as a musical group...but we could certainly go on tour as a comedy troupe...

Happy Birthday Mother...

Cheers...

To an amazing teacher, mother and human being...

It's weird that she's only 29 (again)

I love you...