Double Digit Day: A Decade

Tonight I was out for a drive, sun blinding my eyes as it was setting, taking me back to ten years ago in Shanghai, seven centimeters and headed to the hospital.

An entire decade of being your lucky mom, learning slowly from you what it means to be alive; loving all living things equally, hugging people's heart at every opportunity and ending every day with dirt between your toes and hay in your hair. You are in incredibly beautiful person and heart-warming human being.

You move through life slow as a sloth, never harried or hurried; reminding me to savour small things. You see everything as a gift; a feather, a leaf, a last bite of a special snack. You have much to teach me but I'm slow to learn and feel guilty at the end of each day when I frustrate too easily.

I admire all of your mini masterpieces. You draw non-stop. When I take a minute to talk to you about your work it often comes with a story or well-thought out notes. You make intricate, detailed drawings I have only ever dreamed of creating; creatures with clever underground homes, slides and secret doors and stashes for food, insects and animals, flora and fauna. Fairy worlds.

You will be double digits tomorrow; older, taller, more graceful but ever a child at heart who is more wild than not.

One day, when you're old and gray, I hope you are reading these words and haven't changed a bit. I hope you know you are loved and cherished by the person you call mom.