On Fairy Tales and Birthday Wishes

For some people, each day that goes by feels like living in a fairy tale.  For a fortunate few, life is larger than life and every day events are grand adventures.  Magic happens.  Mystery and wonder abound.  Curses break, princesses wake from deep slumbers, handsome princes slay fearsome dragon.  Life is precious, destiny is real, and even the littlest things (and the littlest people) matter.

I know what that's like.  I know what it feels like to live in a fairy tale.  I am one of those fortunate few because it's the way I was raised.  I grew up with belief in the impossible, the miraculous.  I was surround by the most enchanting stories, wrapped in the most beautiful mantle woven of Truth in fiction.  I know what it's like to live in a fairy tale world, because one was given to me.

My mother made it.  She spun it by hand and by voice, conjuring song and story, hearts and souls, goodness, mercy, faith, imagination.  All the things that make life wonderful, weighty, worthy.  All the colors, sounds, feelings, that inhabit my world.  She gave them to me.  She taught them to me.  She birthed them in me.

The things that I aspire to, the qualities I seek, she models them for me.  She has always modeled them for me.  Compassion, humility, selflessness, servanthood.  Love and love and love, never flagging, never tiring, never-ever-ever giving up.  Like some mythical being, like a well that is never dry, like a river overflowing is my mother's love.

And this is just a part, just a small part of all that she is, all that she does, all that she means to all of us that love her.  These are just some words.

Her birthday is today- my mother, fairy-tale-weaver, life-giver...who loves without ceasing.  Happy birthday, Mommie.  I love you more than any words can say.