Dear Mom,
Thank you. I do not say “thank you” enough. You give, constantly and relentlessly. You give me unconditional love, constant encouragement, empathy, advice, delicious-breakfast-in-bed-every-morning, and calculator-dropping-off-when-I-leave-it-at-home (thank you for that). You give me compassion, regardless of how your day was. You give me positivity, even when you are the one who needs it most. You lend me your ears, when you need someone else to lend you their's.
This Mother’s Day, I want you to receive, to get back the love that you give everyone else. Receiving is something that you do not do often, but it is something that you certainly deserve. That starts with me. I am trying to be a better daughter and give you the love that you give me. Too often, I use “just being a teenager” as justification for being a bad daughter. You deserve better. Last night, you told me that you wanted one thing for Mother’s Day, as you always do. You wanted a poem. So I wrote you a poem, but it may offend the Laws of Poetry:
Love.
There it is. It’s just love. No magic, no secret. Just love. That is what’s real. That's all that matters. You deserve more of it.
Me, Jonny, Azza, and my mother in Paris in 2003.