To A Wonderful Mom - Happy Mothers Day!

Dear Mom,

I know you read my blog.

And so, here I am, hoping you will be pleasantly surprised to read a blog post dedicated just for you. Because, I'm here to wish you and to thank you for everything you've done for me. And for every mother reading this post, I hope you've all been having a wonderful, memorable Mother's Day.

And, to make sure I can head off and make this Mother's Day especially memorable, I'll try to make this blog post brief.

I know it isn't said enough, but, I'd like to say thank you. For being the mother you are, and the mother I know. For teaching me that love is both feeling and action. That love can be unconditional, sincere, timeless.

Thanks for always knowing what was best for me. And for your support, for patience, encouragement, and love.

Like, for instance. Thanks for teaching me how to write in perfect cursive writing when I was six years old. No, really. I'm seriously thankful for this. I have you to thank for my legible handwriting growing up - cursive or otherwise. And, thanks for teaching and drilling me with multiplication tables when I was just in kindergarten. And had me memorize them for a week. Because, seriously, the prep you always gave me at home helped me out with those painful math classes I hated in school.

And, thanks for always attending my school plays. And always giving a standing ovation even though I only had, like, one line. And for clapping enthusiastically even when I screwed that one line up. See: Grade 3 play where I was a pirate and cried on stage.

And, thanks for always attending my ballet classes, recitals, and tests. And thanks for hugging me and buying me ice cream when my ballet teacher reprimanded me for having "zombie arms" during practice runs of my grand jeté. I was so sad, remember? So, thanks for sitting patiently when I obsessively walked around the house with a book balanced on my head for a week, trying to correct that ballet posture. And for not flipping out when I kept asking (every hour, no less), "Is my posture better yet? Is it? Well, is it??"

Mom, you were so very patient with my random "projects." I was a strange child, clearly. Yet you were never fazed.

And, thanks for not flipping out when I quit piano the year I turned thirteen. Thanks for understanding me through my awkward, I-hate-everything-especially-piano-lessons phase.

Thank you for all the sports lessons, piano lessons, dance lessons, and all the lessons in between. They've all been valuable to me.

And, by the way, I've never mentioned this but, thanks for always teaching me from an early age what to wear, how to wear it, the designers to follow, and the ones not worth checking out. And for teaching me how to shop and for showing me what style is. Because you epitomize it.

And, thanks for staying up all night watching me on Christmas Eve when I was eight years old, sick with the stomach flu. I'm sorry I ruined Christmas for you! Thank you for always taking care of me.

Thanks for always helping me with my homework growing up. And for staying up till midnight all those nights I had a Calculus test, helping me prepare, even though you had early patients the next day.

Thanks for always feeding me the best food ever. And for cooking the best food ever.

And, about law school...

Thanks for teaching me the value of school and of my education. And the value of persistence. And for hugging me when I thought I could never get into law school. And for always believing that I would.

Thanks for setting aside a day in your busy schedule to wait for me at a coffee shop near UofT the day I wrote my LSAT. And for sitting there patiently, for four hours, doing work, as I wrote that dreaded test that would get me into law school. And for promptly encouraging me when I thought I didn't do well, taking me out to lunch to calm my worries.

Thank you for never doubting I'd get into law school. Even when I thought I had no chance.

I could go on and on about all the things I'm thankful for, but I'll stop here. This post is getting too long.

So, most of all, thank you for being a wonderful mother, a wonderful friend. Growing up, you have given me more than I've ever thanked you for. And, I promise, that I will spend the rest of my life thanking you and showing you how much I've appreciated your lifetime of unconditional patience, support. And love.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading this today!

Love,

Me

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie."
- Tenneva Jordan

"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."
- Abraham Lincoln

"Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world, a mother's love is not."
- James Joyce