Yesterday, in the mellowest of ways, my favorite teenager quietly completed his 15th trip around the sun. Fifteen!

Those fifteen years have changed everything.

It's all happening so quickly, these childhoods. And I'm left standing here watching both of these kids grow up before my eyes, with my heart twice the size it was before they came, and my life forever transformed for walking this path by their sides. 

What changes us more than motherhood; more than parenting?

Nothing I've ever done. This is the path that has shaped me.

And year by year, they grow and they spiral ever so slowly out of my arms and into a life of their own. What an honor it is to witness. What an honor it is to mother these two along their journey toward grown.

To open my arms and whisper, "Fly!" as they take those first steps toward fledging, even as half of me wished to hold on for just a moment more.

To stand beside them, seeing all that they are capable of; all that they already are without caving to worry for who they will become.

As parents sometimes we get caught up in our heads; in our worries for what comes next. And we lose sight of the moment unfolding before us. But I propose that childhood is not about a simple transition or training ground for "who they will be when they grow up". It's about who they already are, complete at every step of their journey.

Complete; enough; learning and growing their way through today. Just as they always have been. And, I suppose, just as we are as well. 

And how honored I am to be here to witness the ordinary miracles of their childhoods and their growing up.

Happy birthday, Sage. You are a wonder, and I am grateful every day for the lessons that you came here to share. You have changed me in ways I never anticipated.

And for that I am so glad.

Happy birthday.

Love,
Mama

 

And with that? Ireland is waiting. See you on the other side of the pond, my friends!