Speaking of Legacies

Today is April 4th. My youngest child was born today. Giving birth to my daughter was the first time I experienced true happiness. Don’t get me wrong, there were many times before she was born that I was happy but none compared to that day thirty-three years ago.

Giving birth to three sons first was delightful and rewarding but I always felt they would be more their father’s child than mine. I could make smart-looking and clever outfits for my sons but it was not the same as smocking a dress or black patented leather Mary Jane shoes with little white lace-trimmed socks.

My sons tease me saying I must have put a bowl on their heads and trimmed off the excess hair. But my daughter’s long wavy hair was combed and brushed until it shined and then she would sit patiently as I French braided it. I was a lucky woman to have that opportunity. And now I get to watch her with her two daughters caring for them with all the same love and care she learned from watching me. I must add here that my two sons who are fathers are remarkable men caring for their children with an abundance of love that they also learned from their father and me.

There is a tornado watch and thunderstorm warning right now. The wind is so fierce that the trees sound like waves on the ocean crashing onto the beach. If you’ve ever been to Atlantic Beach in North Carolina and tried to carry on a conversation you know what I mean.

The pine trees are over four stories high and are swaying right to left and round and round. It reminds me of life moving constantly not unlike our hearts beating. As I think about my daughter celebrating her birthday today, life goes on. I gave birth to her and now she’s a grown woman giving birth to her own girls and one day her daughters will give birth. The cycle goes round and round just as the pine trees in the wind.

We can only give what we have in our hearts. At the root is love and without love there is no life. And life does go on, one legacy after another.

Footnote: Speaking of legacies, I was born on the birthday of one of America’s great leaders, Martin Luther King. My daughter Jennifer was born on the anniversary of his death.