walking those paths

This morning I found a letter my mother wrote to me 10 years ago tucked away in a corner of my journal. She wrote it to me on my 15th birthday.

"My dear little girl,

How can I express to you the grattitude I feel in my heart for you? You came to me as a gift wrapped in pink.  You were the fulfillment of all my dreams.  I loved you from the moment I knew you were coming to us.  I loved you from the moment I felt your first movement.  I loved you from the moment I first laid eyes upon you and I will never forget the excitement of that moment.  I almost lost you three months after your birth.  The following year was hard as I clung to your life with all the strength I had.  Every ounce of life was wrapped up in you.

It is much that way still.

I shall always see you as my little girl.  Curly hair, giggling personality, nature-lover, and mommy's girl.  We have shared more beautiful moments together than many mothers and daughters do in a lifetime.  I am sure of that.  We are kindred spirits.  In you I see the things I respond to.  Your poem you shared tonight at the dinner table sounds like the words which have been written on my heart for half a century,.  It delights me to see myself living on in you.  We are good!

If I died today, I would die happy because of you.  You have brought more joy into my  life than can ever be expressed.  I shall cherish forever our walks, our adventures, our discoveries, and our blessing of having time together when you were growing up.  We are still making memories as we load the dishwasher together and walk in the moonlight.  We are creating paths for you to follow with your little girl someday.  And you will then perhaps know how I can love you so very much.

I want this this day to be a very happy one.  Not because of beautiful gifts or because of new things...but because of the abundance of love you have to give and receive.  Enjoy your sweet sister, your loyal friends, and your adoring parents on this your fifteenth birthday.

This day happens only once in a lifetime!

I love you,

Mommy"

What I didn't know then was that we were literally creating paths that I would walk with my sweet Evaleigh.  This very morning we walked in the pasture and around the grounds of this home.

Mommy, I think I understand now.