How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I lost a bet to my mom a few months ago and instead of betting money I was instructed to make a list of the reasons why I love her. I didn´t do it right away, because I feel like these things are better when I miss a person and when I´m in a rational state of mind. I wrote this surrounded by willow trees.

I wrote about this in an essay in freshman year of college but let´s just revisit it. I was talking with Margarita the other day and she was telling me about how she had such a rough childhood. Of course that makes me think about my mom and how I can´t even imagine what it would have been like to live her childhood. She worked so hard while I was growing up (still, as I am still growing) to make up for every mistake her mother made.

The reasons why I love my mom:

1. Mom, I love how you delight in treats. In going out for coffee at Ollie´s bakery, going out to eat, in getting ice cream and watching your favorite tv show.

2. I love how you make little songs that represent joy (Daddy coming home from Charlotte on Wednesdays and how that meant we could go out to La Carreta, songs about our animals, songs about the beginning of summer)

3. I love how much you love animals and how they love you. It seems like if there´s ever a problem with one of our pets the solution is to always have you present.

4. I love how excited you get when your plants start growing. I love how proud you are of your garden and how you delight in taking the long way home that goes by the backyard so we can drive "Slooooooowly!" by it and Oooh and Aah over your hardwork.

5. I love that you try so hard to listen to whatever Haley and I are upset about, if we´re crying or sad or simply menstruating.

6. I love how you rub my back when I cry.

7. I love how you and Dad made sure that Haley and I experienced literally every extracurricular sport or activity no matter what our money situation was. Honestly that is very impressive.

8. I love it when you get excited about snow days and you leap around the house so that your sandals fly off your feet as you scuffle, dance, clap and sing.

9. I love how when you´re laughing you cross your legs and slap your knee for emphasis (I get this from you.)

10. I love that you´ve had the tenacity not to make an ultimate plan for yourself. You see this as a weakness, perhaps: how you changed majors in college and then did a bunch of jobs that haven´t affected your rediscovered Spanish career. But I don´t think that´s a weakness at all. That´s living. You do what you want to do and then when things don´t work out anymore you change. I´m so glad to have inherited this value in life from you.

11. I love how similar we are. I love that I can see some of my strong strengths coming directly from you: my love of animals and nature.

I know we argue a lot, but there´s a notion out there that we choose our parents for the lessons our souls need to learn. Our idea is that we argue so much because we´re both so stubborn and refuse to give up control. Maybe our souls have just needed to learn similar things from different people, and I´m glad my soul chose you.