Miss you...

When you're with someone you love you don't know their importance, don't feel their need. Once they leave, even if only temporarily, you realize how important they are and how much you miss them. You realize how much you need them. You need their advice that seems stupid when they're with you. You need their help even if it may seem unnecessary when they're with you. You even need to look at their faces just to feel fully there.

My mother, who is an extraordinary woman, is who I need. I now realize how much she copes with and how much she has to handle. Even though all of us are irritating, disgusting, cranky and just plain bad, she loves us and treats us patiently. She takes care of the whole family along with our adorably bad mannered dog. There are times when we drive her over the edge but never in her life with us has she said something overly harsh. She says what she has to and what we force her to. 

Her warm brown eyes, her soft face, her pink cheeks, the warmth that always flows off her body, the love only she has words to express, the affection with which she holds us, all the sacrifices she gives for us. All these things make her my mother.  The woman who is most important in my life. <3