The Circle of Life

This week we checked out "Heckedy Peg" by Don and Audrey Wood from the library.  It was my favorite book as a child.  I remember my mother reading it to me.  I remember sitting at studying the pictures.  I remember feeling scared, and then happy.  I loved it.

Jane loves it too.  I thought it might be too "grown up" of a book for her.  But she wants me to read it over and over.  She wants me to describe the beautiful pictures.  She listens intently to probably the longest book we've ever read together.  And then asks for it again and again.  And I happily oblige.  How could I not?  I understand the magic of the book?

It is interesting to find myself in this position.  To do something my mother did.  To find myself on the other side of this magical mother/child relationship.  I finally understand those words I so hated to hear, "I'm doing this because I love you".  In many ways I am my mother, and Jane is her mother's daughter.  In moments like this I can almost glimpse the future, as well as the past.  A picture of Jane reading to her own children, a memory of reading with my own mother.

This circle of mother having a child who becomes a mother and has a child has been ongoing since the beginning of time, and now I get to be a part of it.  When I think about it I feel honored, awe-struck, and nearly overwhelmed with responsibility.  What will Jane learn from me to carry into her part of the circle?  What we do as mother's truly has lasting effect, for our children, and their children.

What a beautiful job I have.