For Mum

Happy Mother’s Day, Mum.

Thank you for teaching me to write thank you notes, to look people in the eye, to say “may I please,” to treat all people with respect, to use the silver for everyday, to cook casually, to identify puffs of wind by rough spots on the water, to sing even though we’re tone deaf, and to approach life as a grand adventure.

Thank you, more than anything, for showing me the essential truth of your senior yearbook quote and mine: To miss the joy is to miss all. (Robert Louis Stevenson)

I love you.