As a countdown to my 30th birthday on March 18, I’ve committed to offering 30 people, things and experiences I want to celebrate from the last 30 years. Grab a piece of cake and enjoy reading!
I have to admit that this initial celebration post felt a little pressure-laden at first. I quickly realized, however, that there was an obvious and natural starting place. So I’m simply going to start where I literally started: with my mother.
Guatemala 2009
As with most children, my relationship with my mother has run the gamut these last thirty years. I remember turning to my mom when one of my older brothers had just entered his snarky teenaged years and telling her I’d always be really nice to her. And then, of course, I became a teenager. To my delight, she has since become an incredibly close friend!
While I’ll never be able to celebrate her – or the other people in my life – as fully as they each deserve, I offer the following:
Thanks, Mom, for the whole birth thing. And the rearing. And the money for college. But today I am mostly present to an abiding sense of gratitude that you have followed your own dreams, for in that act I have found courage to follow my own, belief in the impossible and an endless source of joy!
Tags: celebration, change
Jen this is such an awesome idea, I will definitely be following! What a great pic of you and your mom too, where are you? I hope the next 30 days are as wonderful for you as the past 29 years and 335 have been so far. Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks, Val! This is a photo of me and my mom in Guatemala last year. She lives there now and I took a week to go visit her.