September 27, 2023

Another birthday for Grace. Sentimentality always pulls me back through my memories. Not all memories feel good, but when I think about Grace, I never leave the past without having a smile for her present and future. 

She is the daughter of the Most High King, and her crowning glory is so much more than her hair. She has been the Chic with Trich, and when her hair grew again, she became the Best Tressed.  She has rocked bald, frizz, curls, long hair, short hair, barrettes and clips, pigtails and ponytails and pixie, wavy and wild wigs, updo and ball cap, extensions, head scarves and henna hair and high lights, every color of God’s rainbow, and her own-grown beautiful brown. 

She calls me Mama, and I can hear her delicate lilting voice even when it’s just over a text or on a post. She resonates in my ears. I recognize her song through all my distractions, the very same way my ears are tuned to hear the sterling wind chimes she gave me right outside my bedroom window. The crickets and cicadas and cars are loud on a summer evening, but with one gentle breeze, Grace’s music plays, and her Mama hears her.

She is music. She’s Stevie and Post and Lana. She’s Sweet Child o’ Mine and Amazing Grace. She’s lullabies and nursery rhymes. She’s all the sounds of nature, of all God’s creatures great and small. And she is an advocate for all whose voices aren’t heard. 

She is a lot of things to a lot of people. Daughter. Sister. Friend. Employee. Neighbor. Confidante. Fiancée. And Harry’s Mama. She’s trying not to get lost in the exhaustion of being everything all at once, and she’s doing a stellar job.  Her time and energies are focused around her little family exactly as they should be, but she never fails with her support and willingness to show love to everyone else around her. 

She tends her garden lovingly with patience and provision and protection and pruning. And she knows the beauty of the dark side because she has seen the splendor to be found there. She plants black violas knowing how striking they will be and that they will be the stars of her garden next to the whites and yellows. She’s teaching Harry to dig in the dirt because a garden is more beautiful seen through the eyes of a gardener who wipes sweat from her brow with her own dirty fingers.

She is planning her wedding to Eli choosing special people and special elements that speak to her heart. She wants her wedding to be perfect, and I expect it probably won’t be. Something will fall through, or go awry, and those mishaps will make for perfect memories. Her wedding gown isn’t at all what I expected, but it’s exactly Grace. 

She is partnered with Eli, and he’s one lucky man! He gets to live with her for the rest of his life while Paul and I only had her for the beginning. What a beginning it was! We had a good run, Grace. Didn’t we?

She’s 25 today. We won’t see her to wish her a happy birthday in person. We are thinking about her and have her gifts, and we will celebrate her this weekend. Happy birthday My Gorgeous. We love you.