This piece by Eva Smith was cross-posted on Tech.Food.Life.
Dear Daughter,
Today is Mother’s Day. I know you are very excited about today. You’ve been watching me for weeks, asking me a lot of questions about the things that I like. I know that you’re really excited about today.
Every Mother’s Day is like your birthday to me. It reminds me about the day you were born and your perfect features, soft skin and tiny hands and toes. You were delicate, like a rose. I remember the day we took you home and the joy I felt in my heart when you called me “Momma”. I remember the day you started Kindergarten. You ran into the classroom excited to start your first day of school. You went on to Middle School and grew up to be the most beautiful young lady. When you graduated from High School I was overwhelmed with anxiety and excitement… as I realized that my baby girl is now a young woman.
Each Mother’s Day has been one of the highlights of my life. I’m not excited about the gifts or the details of the day, the most important thing to me is that we get to spend the day together.
This Mother’s Day, I want to give you a gift that I should have given you at birth, reinforced in Middle School and packed into your treasure box the day you graduated from High School. It is the gift of being a Mother that cares about the environment. Over the last two decades we have recycled aluminum cans and newspapers. We also observed our first Earth Hour in High School. These were just the building blocks that have led to this day. I want to make the air we breathe, the water we drink and the natural resources from our environment a priority in my life. I want to be an example of what a woman can be, so that when you get older, caring for the environment will be a regular part of your life.
I’m joining forces with Mother’s around the world today at Mom Clean Air Force (MCAF) blog carnival, A Mother’s Day Gift. MCAF mom’s are uniting to speak in one voice to ensure that there are natural resources left for you when you get older and for my future grand children and your children’s children. I want you to be proud of the way I lived my life. When I get to be 100, I hope, I want to look back at my life and know that I lived a good life and that I contributed to making the earth a cleaner place to live in.
Happy Mother’s Day baby girl!
Love,
Mom
This piece is part of the Moms Clean Air Force Blog Carnival: A Mother’s Day Gift.