Open Letter To My Children

I woke up this morning, preparing to celebrate with our family, wearing purple to honor my elder aunt, thinking about my children.

We, as women, are the carriers of our history, the nurturers of our promise, the holders of collective dreams.

As such, we, me, I am passionate, emotional, sensitive, and sometimes naive.  I love my family, hold them all dear in my heart, know that my yesterday, today, and tomorrow is nothing if I was not defined by them in my life.  My career and my degrees do not define me, when I take my last breath, it will be the people I have loved and who love me that are the legacy.

With that in mind, my children, here is a letter to you...

My olive plants around the table, my hope, my dreams, my promise, my children

There are not enough words in my mind to begin to tell you, each of you, how much you mean to me.

Each of you came to me in a different way, beyond my dreams, and into the reason why I was chosen to carry your spirit and nurture your essence.

Different and alike, all of us together sharing genes that ties us to our ancients and binds us as kin.

You are the breath of existence that decided that through me, from me, you would come and share your purpose in life.

My princes, now kings, you carry within you the majesty and honor that was my father's passed down in wisdom to you.  Each of you touched by his massive helds and the hearers of his booming voice, the receivers of his unending fountain of love.  Remember and honor him.

My princesses, still princesses, later in my life, in another life, you emerged through the universe to enter our space and bring with you the lace and lillies that brighten up the atmosphere.  Still growing and while living in a space different than the brothers and not carrying the wisdom of my father, you hold the name, the face, and the essence of my mother.  Makes me stand still to see how the Divine brought what mattered most to me in fruition in the six of you.

From my angel baby to my resilient last one, you are the reasons for the deferred dreams and unspent hopes  The waiting years and the promise of fulfillment yet to come.

You will not understand completely what I am saying to you today, you have to live to have the story, to  hold the words, and to read the lines.

I want you to know that I, your mother, will and have walked through fire and held back lions to protect you, that I will stand like the unmovable tree against any force that tries to harm you.  That I have made choices with only you in mind and that you are living the promise of my reason.

When I look at your pictures and remember your years, I stop and thank G-d for blessing me beyond what I could ever know.

Today, you may not understand, I was you once, not that many years ago, and never understood the choices of my late father and the choices he made for me and my brothers, but I can tell you, that today, all these years later, sitting months away from the dawn of my Jubilee, I understand.  And you will too.

My dear ones, I love you.  All of you, beyond today and into tomorrow.

Cory, Jamar, Jared, Joshua, Kiden, and Keziah - you are my sunshine.

I love you forever and even then, when my forever has come to an end, I will love you still.