happy birthday mum!

this is an image almost entirely unimaginable during my teen years (and perhaps at times after that),
but here we are - my mum and i - able to truly express our love and affection for each other
as people who have been there and more than done that … and lived to tell the tale!

what is truly wonderful is that "telling the tale" has become a matter of truth and straight upness and not so much the carefully manicured pieces of life before we finally got each other and understood much of what had gone before. now we live in the hope that we have many more years to share our stories, our joys, our struggles, our simple appreciation for a life that is so astonishing to each of us, given not only where we came from, but where we imagine we are going to.

we are each on a trajectory that sees us bringing whatever goodness we can in the time we are given to whatever and whomever crosses our paths.

happy birthday mum.

i am so deeply grateful for the goodness you taught me to look for and create in myself,
and then also for the goodness you continue to bring into this world!

with my love

steven