Mom's World in Herself

“For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us….That is why young people, who are beginners in everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. ..But learning time is always a long, secluded time, and therefore loving, for a long time ahead and far on into life, is solitude, a heightened and deepened aloneness for the person who loves. Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent?). It is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person.”

-Rainer Maria Rilke

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In order to fully love someone else, you must be unapologetically yourself, and grow your own rich inner world in order to give something meaningful to someone else. My mom has sacrificed in her life to be a wife and mother, but her world in herself has always been rich with passions, values, and causes.

It's through my mom's world that I found my passion for reading, and education, and social justice. To be generous, but have boundaries, to dance if you feel like it, keep an open mind about people who are different, and be kind to strangers who seek out conversation. That you never stop learning, or creating goals for yourself, and to dream big. That amidst the low points in life, there's always something to celebrate. And if you can't find it, there's always wine until you do...

I'm still young and a beginner in everything, but my mom has taught me how to create my own world in myself, so that I may be giving, and loving, to other people.

I love you, mom.
Happy Mother's Day!