Greetings, This is really the second Mother's Day post, as I had much more pictures to post and things to say about motherhood in all of its various forms.
I have posted before about not having children, how it can just happen to you that you are at some point in your life and realize that you won't be doing that thing called giving birth. It can be sad, it doesn't have to be. It is all very subjective. For me, almost as soon as I realized that there would not be biological children, my life filled with students who became good friends, many of them young women, in each of them traits that I could only hope that my imaginary daughter (Stella Wren) would have had. Each has a special confidence, a keen intellect and a particular grace that manifests differently in that various women. Each, in some distinct way, blows me away and fills me with admiration and yes--though I've no right to it: pride. Two lost mothers to untimely and in one case, violent deaths. One conquered a wicked addiction and went on to be the most responsible, hilarious, well-read and mature women I know. She balances this with some serious silly, as all of my favorite people do. Another runs her own home interior blog, refinishes furniture, loves cats, and has a confidence in what she knows and who she is that I am just barely acquiring. There are others: one who makes me earrings and makes me laugh, another who took a vintage quilt that I gave to her and made of it the tipi centerpiece to her thesis show--the ragged, worn beauty of it made stately again. These relationships are crucial to me and they alone would be enough. But two and half years ago, BabyBuggyCakes, my youngest sister, gave our family the first grandchild and nephew,
and just two weeks ago, followed that up with my beautiful new niece Mimicakes. The feeling I had, instantly, when I saw them, could have been nothing less than blood-deep and if it lacked some intensity that motherhood possesses firsthand, it is still magic enough to get me through this life.
For my own live-in offspring, there is Maggie the frog, Cricket and Zoe the cats and my baking assistant, Gladys,
pictured here as she oversees my preparation of my favorite new party shortcut ingredient:birdsnest meringues. (Bonus: the link shows a good Easter version of these.) I made a whipped cream, dosed it with some pure vanilla and a splash of rosewater and painted it inside the nests. Then I took three dark chocolate covered almonds and arranged them in the center. It was light, pretty healthy and pretty to behold. Each seemed like a little treasure.
