Dear Mom,
May 8 is still marked in my daytimer as your Birthday (with a reminder to email you). This will be the second time I have had to celebrate your birthday without you here to enjoy it (damn you, cancer!). I am just getting used to doing it this new way (marking your birthday in your absense), but am determined to continue the tradition. I still love thinking about you and the birthday rituals you put in place for us, including your practice of writing emails or making a post to the blog to tell people things that you loved about them on their birthdays.
And that is what I feel like doing (even if it is only going out to the others who love you, and keep stories of your awesomeness in circulation!). So here it goes! I found a photo that captures some of those things I was thinking about. It is is just an ordinary summer photo, but here it is.
There are so many things I love and that make me smile about this photo. I love how blingy you are! There you are, gorgeous hair pulled up and clipped in place. And the jacket?! Seriously?! It reminds me that you could never pass by on a jean dress or jean jacket (but the shoulder cut outs on this one are just hilarious). You know how to really dress up that red "Canada" t-shirt! And it makes me happy to see you wearing my pottery necklace, silver rings, multiple bracelets on each wrist (and your fitbit) and a pair of long dangly bear claw earrings picked up at one of the Secwepemc gatherings! :-) I love your thirst for knowledge, and for living, and the ways you pulled all of us along with you in all your explorations of the world. I also love the ways you spend time really engaging with young people, treating them and their ideas and emotions with the deepest of respect, and including the basket of dolls right there on the table (I love watching you chop the waffle pieces up into tiny squares that could be loaded up with whipped cream and be picked up by little hands...and i know you will be telling stories, or teaching new words or songs at the same time). I love that you always model for us that work and play and the building of relationships are always happening in the same spaces)
On your birthday, i am grateful for all the lessons (and as the Gitxsan say, all the spitting you did in our ears). I love you.. Happy Birthday!
Thanks for sharing this. Yes to remembering all the spit in our ears.
ReplyDeleteI'm celebrating today by remembering how many minutes (525,600 X 80) that we got to enjoy her love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyueGn9wqdk&t=1s
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the link. I don't know why my goal waa to watch it without crying. I cried, them laughed, then cried again, then laughed, and then gave up on trying to control my response. She was everything, everywhere, all at once, and still is.
Delete💜
ReplyDeleteLoved your mom, she was full of great advice and always had time for everything and everyone! She was good to me and I miss her. Happy Birthday Arta!
ReplyDeleteCheryl Leavitt
DeleteI was writing a comment and my computer crashed and I lost it. Instead of trying to recreate it, I will just say this one thing I loved about Arta as my birthday present to her... she taught me that it is OK for it not to be perfect. Just hit send, or publish. You can go back later and fix it up. And if you never go back and fix it up, that`s great too.
ReplyDeletei wish Arta was here now-love Betty :)
ReplyDelete