_
Kisses, my lovely child,
for loving me in spite
of my limitations,
my absence,
my preoccupation,
my lack

We have adored
one another from afar,
inwardly, in silence,
in secret, when really
it should have been
otherwise, like my
childhood when we were all
one giant teeming mass
of humanity who could never
seem to escape each
other on holidays

Who knows why or how
it came to be the way it is
in spite of our wishing
and wanting; I have never
loved you any less
or let a day go by
without thinking of you

Perhaps this is the ideal;
you are perfect in my
opinion of you, not
ridden with faults
gleaned from too much
togetherness,
though I often feel
I don't know you the way
my heart wishes
to know you,
living so far apart
as we do

That our visits are
rare is a family imperfection
and my lifelong regret,
and I am humbled that
you hold me in high
esteem in spite of it

You are so loved...
beyond words

-- Jo VonBargen 2011


Happy Birthday, my lovely daughter, Charity Noelle!!