Handwritten note in greeting card
For May 10, 1970 [Mother’s Day]
When I begin to think about
the length and breadth and depth
of my own wisdom.
I wonder how I acquired it.
It begins with “Mother.”
Food and drink have not much taste
when one is not hungry or thirsty.
Whence my hunger and thirst for learning?
My mother.
You never said, “Do good deeds. Love your fellow man. Serve God.”
You have always done so.
“My birth,” I once asked, “Did it hurt you?”
“Yes,” you answered, “until they put you in my arms.”
I trusted this and three times confirmed it profoundly true.
Of facts and ways I’ve stored up much
but meanings reach out from one early touchstone:
My mother.
Body and spirt flower healthy and strong
watered with tears and
freely fed by the sunlight of love.
Life begins and life endures
in the presence of pain, with joy
always hovering by.
Knowledge, God willing, I will continue to acquire
but the wisdom you taught will always inspire.
God bless you and keep you.
I love you.
Bernice