To my sweet not-so baby girl,

It’s May. Summer is just about here, and we are just about to celebrate graduations and weddings and new babies. None of those are yours, thank goodness, because you’re only 2! Someday, though, they will be. You will be looking around you and trying to figure out just exactly what emotion you will be feeling. You will be afraid of leaving the life you’ve always known, but excited to see what happens in the future. You will be scared that you will make a mess of it all. You will be confident that you know what you’re doing- even if you really have no clue. You will be equal parts wanting to leave and start everything new and wanting to hold on so tight to traditions and friends and that bring comfort in the every day.

Here is some unsolicited advice from your loving Mama:

BE PRESENT! Soak it all in. Remember faces and expressions and unimportant conversations. You really never know when or if you will see anyone again. Make every minute count.

Love. Don’t be afraid of getting hurt or hurting someone. If it feels right in your heart, then it probably is. Make sure, however, that you’re listening to your heart and not your hormones. Trust me, they are easy to confuse sometimes.

Try new things, but honor your commitments. At the end, you may still be unhappy with the experience that you had, but at least you’ll be able to say that you tried. And if you’re stuck doing something unpleasant, you don’t really have a choice but to make it work somehow.

Make REAL friends. Surround yourself with people who make you feel like the person that you want to be and respect the person that you are. Those people do exist, I promise.

Be kind. Other people have feelings, too. Smile at people. Yours may be the only smile that someone may see. Sometimes, that makes all the difference.

Every day, take a minute and lose yourself into something beautiful. It could be a flower, the way the sunlight comes through the trees, a painting, or a well-crafted piece of clothing. It could be a person or an animal. Thank God for making beautiful things, even if you are at a very low point in life. It will give you something to hold on to. If there is beauty in the world, then there is hope. Hold on to hope.

There is a line in your favorite book that has made me choke up EVERY SINGLE TIME that I read it: “And so then, my darling, wherever you roam- may you always be safe, may you always come home.” Please remember that, no matter what, you can ALWAYS come home. Nothing will ever change my love for you.

I love you always,
Mommy.