Happy Birthday....

....to my mom.

Today would have been my mom's 94th birthday. She died when I was 29 years old and was just one year older than I am right now.

Happy Birthday Mom!

With the help of my sister Nancy my mom was able to make a trip to Maine just after Paul and I moved there back in 1987.  She loved seeing the ocean and our new home....and she is the one who taught me how to make a house a home.

I shared this poem here last year on my own April birthday....and today I'm sharing it again on what would have been hers.  I spent a good chunk of the day yesterday raking, weeding, and cleaning up gardens....so I'm especially tuned into the "old camel" and the "inexhaustible flame" that was my mom.

August Third 
by Mary Sarton

These days
Lifting myself up
Like a heavy weight,
Old camel getting to her knees,
I think of my mother
And the inexhaustible flame
That kept her alive
Until she died.

She knew all about fatigue
And how one pushed it aside
For staking up the lilies
Early in the morning,
The way one pushes it aside
For a friend in need,
For a hungry cat.

Mother, be with me.
Today on your birthday.
I am older than you were
When you died
thirty-five years ago.
Thinking of you
The old camel gets to her knees,
Stands up,
Moves forward slowly
Into the new day.

If you taught me one thing
It was never to fail life.