Happy Birthday Mom! Today my mother celebrates another year of life and to God I am grateful and blessed to have such a wonderful mom who has done so much to form me into the man I am with the added bonus of driving me a little crazy at time. I love you Mom!
And so I write a love letter to my Mom.

Dearest Mother, one thing that I most love about you is your willingness to be yourself. I see this in the very life you live where in serving others, especially in the image and likeness of God, you live unselfconsciously in the life of grace.
The sound is like the silent whistle that blows from your lips as you go about the most mundane of tasks. It is an endearing quality that many of your children have been blessed with as we laugh and joke about this gift of love that we recognize as a true blessing from God. It is the joy of watching and hearing your silent tune of love and joy.
The color of your love is the soft blue of an Idaho summer morning. It is sitting with you on the deck looking out at the ripening field of wheat with a cup of coffee at hand or the quiet of the table where the solitaire cards interrupt the silence as you shuffle through the deck peaking and moving about to see how the next card will open up new possibilities. It is your trust in the providence of life, peaking into God’s will for you, your children and all the family hoping and blessing us with the desire for a deeper joy and happiness in union with our Lord Jesus.
The posture of the body is relaxed and comfortable like sitting in your favorite chair watching another Mariners’ baseball game. Absorbing the relaxing pace and the moments of tension in equal measure knowing the game is but a symbol of our joy together. It is your pleasure in the simple and defined blessings where the conversations that happen in-between the pitches of the game mirror your words of love and blessing, words of wisdom in-between the challenges I as your son speak in confidence of hearing your voice echoing the peace of our Blessed Mother Mary.
The taste would be like the simple home cooked meal offered as a Eucharistic blessing, broken and shared. The meal where two, three or many are gathered as family given with ease of the uncountable times you offered the family meal or fed the multitude with trust that it would be enough. The blessing of a multiplication only possible when you, as mother, let go and simply enjoy those your are with as Jesus does in his feasts of life.
The feel is the cold hand, the warm touch, the soothing movement of love that is found in the childhood memories that are reawakened each time the touch is renewed over and over again, like the Hail Mary spoken and blessed remembering the slow movement of the beads mirroring the graceful blessing of a mother to her child. It is the image of God’s mercy again and again reaching out in our distress to invite us once more into community.
It is the grace of starting anew. Seeing the home become an empty pit of smoke and rubble and beginning once more knowing the gift of community and the comfort of family. Allowing us to be taken in the hospitality of the family and friends and building once more treasuring the memories of the past while trusting and knowing the Divine Providence of a grace filled future as our Blessed Mother Mary experienced at the Cross of love.
A scene of memory is you sitting in the seat of the John Deer 95 Combine at harvest working alongside Dad, young and spry, full of energy, laboring in the vineyard of God’s abundance as we recognize the time passing where age begins to slow and the movement of life lessens. It is the blessing we discover and rediscover again and again in remembering the strength and vitality of bearing 9 children, burying a husband, a son, a brother and many loved ones knowing the final destination which we all must journey and doing so in grace, strength and hopefulness where life grows greater in God’s love.
This is my love letter to you. May God bless you and keep you always.

Love, your son,
Mark