To Mom....

From "The Blue Jay's Dance" by Louise Erdrich

"My hands reach down, trembling with anger, reach toward the needy child, but instead of roughly managing her they close gently as a whisper on her body. As though I am somehow physically enlarged, I draw her to me, breathing deeply. The tension drops away. At this moment, I am invested not with my own thin, worn endurance, but with my mother's patience. This is a gift she has given me from far away. Her hands have poured it into me. The hours she soothed me and the deep quiet in which I have watched her rock, nurse and comfort my brothers and sisters have passed invisibly into me. This gift has lain within me all my life, like a bird in a nest, waiting until the moment my hands need the soft strength of wings."

Thank you mom for your gifts that I carry with me today and pass on to my daughter, Butterfly Girl.