Today I was thinking of you, and how you put
career ahead of family and friends and love;
Wondering, knowing I instilled in you a sense
to do what you thought best of all listed above—
To strive to do what made you happy first.
And yet, as your mother, in retrospect, I find
myself sad, for I miss you, and as I look back
at my own life, how the ties that bind
I found were tightly wrapped around me. I
put family above all else, you and your brother,
your father, my brothers, my father; and the
relationship that now means so much—my mother.
The generations before me did much the same.
Love of family first, jobs a quick second place.
But your choice took you far away from me; each
day sad for the loss of your laughter and of your face.
I don’t regret the choice I made. I have had
many wonderful times of family love and laughter.
Will you, my daughter, who spends so few
moments with family that you love, hereafter
find that when all is said and done, in the end,
wish you had spent less time pursuing careers,
and more time pursuing the love you left behind, having
found the time of family love and laughter sadly in arrears.
