I'm getting a bit personal in today's post. I share a birthday with my super-cool, wacky, brilliant, fun-loving daughter, and today is OUR day. It is our first birthday celebrated apart in 21 years, and although we're separated by miles of land and the Atlantic Ocean, I feel closer to her than ever.

In honor of her and our special day, I thought I'd share a poem my own mother wrote and gave me on a birthday years ago.

It says it all.

Happy Happy Birthday

My birthdays aren’t the ones

That bring me face to face

With my mortality.

It’s my childrens’ birthdays

That give me pause.

Those babies I bathed

And cuddled

And taught to laugh,

Slide into adulthood –

Into parenthood.

And I find myself thinking

It was only yesterday

That their little arms reached out to me

To keep their world secure.

And the candles on their birthday cakes

Were only two – or three,

I’m sure.

Yet, it’s my childrens’ birthdays

That renew me, and cause me to sense,

With the passing of time,

The golden knowledge

That, through them,

I shall live forever.

-- Karen J. Fitt (my mom)