Dearest wee bee,

If there is one piece of advice I can give, it is this: gather the mums ’round you.

Noni (my dearest mum), has always said to me that I seem to gather “other mothers” wherever I go.

Folks of any and all kinds who love you unconditionally, regardless of your choices, just because you’re you.

Folks who always listen.

Folks who offer advice in a world that can sometimes seem too large, too cold, too uncaring.  They’ll make you realize that the world and even the universe have your back.

Seek out the other mothers, my sweet girl. Not because I don’t love you more than anything else in the whole wide world.  On the contrary, it is precisely because I do that I want you to always be completely surrounded by those who love you the same way that I do.  In this hyper-technologically connected and yet strangely disconnected world we live in, building connections, finding “your village”, is even more important than ever before.

So gather the mums ’round you, my darling.  And on Mother’s Day, and all days, give thanks, with joy and love, for the ones who circle in.