Mom.

At the risk of paying myself a backhanded compliment....

It occurs to me that a significant amount of what is good in me comes from my mother.

We both will cry at a stranger's funeral because we feel the pain of others in deep and personal way.

We both make food into art for our children because...well...it's an odd sort of way we express love by making food into faces and other amusing shapes.

We both can take a bit to warm up to people, but if you're looking for a loyal friend, we're pretty good at it.

We both are pretty good at taking care of people, of listening, and making them feel valued.

We both find ourselves leaning heavily on the lyrics of old hymns and songs when times are tough...even if we can only remember half of the words, and are making up the rest.

We both are an endless source of made-up songs for our kids, recognizing that music communicates and relates to people on a different level. (Yesterday I heard my daughters singing a song about a broken puzzle box that I made up and thought they were mostly ignoring)

As I look at my own children growing up I see them taking on my own good and bad qualities. I notice my flaws and brokenness turning up in them, and I experience the terrifying reality of being responsible for the physical, emotional, and spiritual formation of two humans, not to mention two humans I love.

And I realize that my mom must have had her own moments of wishing I wouldn't be so much like her...but on mother's day we celebrate the good, the beautiful ways in which we have become like our moms. So for all the blessings - the things I learned from you mom about faith, love, compassion, persistence, sacrifice, empathy, and trusting God - thanks.

Thanks is not enough, but it's a start. But beyond gratitude I can tell you mom that the good things you have taught and lived in your life, they live on - in me - and hopefully my girls.