Mirror Mirror

It was nineteen years ago today, on my birthday, that I was gifted. The young man on my right, just a babe in arms then with a serene face and deep blue eyes, tipped my world on its axis. He made me a mother and a lioness all at once. My birthday, my focus, my life suddenly enlarged never to return to its former shape. He taught me then how to hold myself for the sake of him, a skill I sorely needed to learn even so young.

And now 19 freakin years old! Well launched and resolutely his own person, a quality I hope he learned through my missteps as much as my triumphs. There's a part of me that feels we grew up together and are both now graduated from our various schools, ready to take on the world.

Birthdays are funny things. A microscope and a telescope all at once and a whole heap of sparkly wonder between. They polarise and underline. They echo the tick of the clock and wrap us in a warm soft blessing that shelters our ears from that relentless noise. They shine a candle on what matters most by underlining our connections and encouraging their forging. And I love them without shame or shrugging; mine, his, yours. There is ever so much to be celebrated and to be grateful for, every single year in a row.