The Legacy

At some point in every parent’s life, I believe you reach for the idea that you might be so lucky to leave behind a legacy with your life. By example of living well and learning much, you want for your children to replicate your good deeds and recall your greatness. You wish for the difficult times to evaporate into loving memories of how doing right is always harder, but always worth it - how your efforts as a parent made the life you led momentous to the life your children will lead.

When you reach for this legacy, what used to be personal highlights: anniversaries, birthdays, the coming of age, sleep – they lose importance against the needs of your family. Nearly overnight your husband and children are prioritized. You bask in their happiness, their joy and accomplishments, taking little to no credit for what, intrinsically, you know has been in due part to your being their mother. You just smile.

This is how a legacy is born – where the rewards are reaped years beyond the seeds being sown. But aspirations for great heights, for excellence as a human being, for repenting those mistakes made and finding they were grand gestures to completion – they were counted. And eventually, maybe on the eve of some forgotten anniversary or the happening of another birthday – every piece falls into perfect placement ~ your legacy is born.

That is today.

You have done it Mom. You have been the action and reaction to what it means to live on Faith, and act on Love. We, as your children, are indebted because there is no greater accomplishment than what we have been granted as a Mother. There is no reason to ever not try harder and appreciate more, because we have front-row seats to excellence in life.

Thank you Mom.

And Happy Birthday.

Evermore,

Your Children