I have a letter that my mom wrote me when I was little. The letter began, “You are two years old, and I want to speak my love into your heart.” In the letter, she speaks of her hopes and dreams for me. The future unfolded, I’m sure, quite a bit different than she imagined but she continued to speak her love into my heart through her actions every day. As a teen going through a life changing diagnosis, I did a very poor job of receiving it, but through small actions and the large, through trips to the hospital, advocating for my care as a nurse herself and making unimaginably hard decisions while continuing to work and hold our family together she never wavered in her love or made me feel like a burden.

When I read over that letter now, there’s sadness there, a sense of loss, and gratitude and pain. But I want to speak my love into her heart through this letter of gratitude for the legacy of love she has given me, a legacy I will carry in my heart for the rest of my life.