Twenty-four years ago today, my mother ushered me into the world.

That sounds like such a quiet, hushed, peaceful event doesn’t it? Ushered. Every report I’ve ever heard about childbirth begs to differ.

Mothers of the world, back me up on this.

Since then, my family has seen me through 24 birthdays, and frankly it hasn’t gotten much more peaceful. But it has been fun!

With three siblings, an ongoing parade of family pets, friends, extended family and the day-to-day tasks associated with all of the above, the chaos rarely gets reigned in for more than about 20 minutes. Luckily, we have a master ringleader.

So, rather than wax philosophical about my 24th birthday and what that means to me, I’m going to tell you a bit more about my mom.

Because without her, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Literally. And frankly, she did all the heavy lifting that day two dozen years ago.

I just showed up.

1. My mom has never told any of us we couldn’t do something. (Short of jumping off a roof to see if we could fly. She told us we couldn’t do that. The control freak.) Whenever we come to her with our ideas of “what we want to be when we grow up” she always responds with support, constructive concerns, and advice. But she never tells us we can’t achieve it.
2. When I was growing up, she let me dress myself. These outfits generally involved polka dots, checks, and stripes. All in one day. All in one outfit. All different colors. With a giant hair bow to top off the ensemble. Very stylish.
3. She is our teacher. Every day, of course, but especially when growing up. We were all home schooled for a time. My time was until I was 14 years old. How she wrangled the curricula for three kids of different ages and a toddler all at once I will never know. (Case in point: I just used the word curricula in a sentence. I blame my mother for this.)
4. While she didn’t buy us a pony (although it is my birthday – today could be the day!), we did lease a horse from the barn for a while. And we took horseback riding lessons. And it was pretty awesome.
5. Before we all came along and got all needy, she was a plant scientist.
6. As such, she loves to garden.
7. As children, she planted a bunch of sunflowers in such a way that when they grew we’d have a sunflower fort.
8. She also let us have tea parties from the limbs of our massive, front yard tree. This effectively mixed the classy – a tea party – with just a hint of danger as we crouched among the branches. And yes, she might have joined us up there dangling above the earth.
9. Our childhood, while very academic around the home, was also very adventurous out of the home. We were pushed to get outside. And sometimes she even locked the door behind us. I kid, I kid! She never locked us out. But she did encourage us to get sunshine and exercise.
10. She didn’t laugh too hard when I accidentally dyed my hair black in high school. Then she told me it was going to be fine. And it was.
11. Growing up, she read to us almost every night before bed. I credit my love of books to her and my dad for maintaining this practice.
12. She has a lovely singing voice.
13. She likes to mix her breakfast cereals. This used to freak me out. Then I got older. And suddenly it made sense.
14. I think there’s probably a life lesson in there somewhere.
15. She has a very distinctive whistle. She utilizes this trait to summon her children. In fact, she did such a good job of conditioning us four to respond to this whistle that even now, whenever I hear a whistle of similar tone and quality, my head immediately whips around and I search her out.
16. This has been known to happen even when I’m in a different state entirely and she’s still here. Nicely played, Mom.
17. When I get sick, even today when I live by myself in the city, she offers to come pick me up at all hours so I can be well-cared for at home.
18. Patience.
19. Humility.
20. Love.
21. Compassion.
22. Wisdom.
23. Courage.
24. Strength.

Enough said.

Mom, I love you. Thank you for being all of the above and so much more. Thank you for bringing me into this world. Thank you for having three other kids and raising us in such a close, warm, supportive environment.

Thank you for being a role model. Because really, in so many different ways, that’s exactly what you are. Our role model.

Love,

-a

p.s. The photo on the left is a head shot I took for my mom’s business. That’s another thing: my mom has grown and fully operates her own small business, and is quite successful at it. She impresses me daily.

The photo on the right was taken by Kelli Nixon.