My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep. The more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
That's what my mom sent in an email to my sister Rachel and me yesterday. The words were spoken originally by Juliet, yet they are so much more breathtakingly beautiful and moving in the mouth of a mother speaking to her children. At least to me, though I concede I was a particularly susceptible reader yesterday morning, with my three week old baby in my arms on the anniversary of my father's death.
My dad and Beatrice missed each other by seventeen years. How is it possible, when I know with a certitude that extends deep into the marrow of my every bone, that they - just as with Frances and Gabriel - would adore one another? That maybe, just maybe, they do adore one another, for love is infinite and stronger than death? I can't explain the mechanics but that doesn't seem like a good reason to rule out the possibility.
Now that I am a mother, my own mother's heroic love becomes more extraordinary to me with every year. My dad would like that. Here I am nursing this new one, and dear readers, the more I think about it, the more I am astonished by the boundlessness of mother love.
2 comments:
Beautiful. Your Mama is amazing & so are you. Hugging you from afar. And your sweet little bundle too.
I feel that I must respond but don't know exactly what to say. But I do agree with you - a mother's love is such an extraordinary thing. I understand the necessity of it from a scientific perspective - we must protect our little ones if they are to grow and prosper. But it was shocking to me - the depths of love I felt after yours and Rachel's births. It came from the very marrow of my bones and sinews. And ever since then I, too, marvel at mothers and what we are capable of being. There is so much strength in us. I see it in you everytime I am with you. I see it in Rachel. And it makes me so proud...and thrilled.
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