I wrote a story called “A Letter to My Children,” which can be found in my new book, “Waking Up.” I remember the day I wrote it, and I remember WHY I wrote it.

It was a balmy, summer night and as my kids were floating in and out of the house, and those that didn’t live home had called me, I started to think about all the things they don’t yet know about parenthood…what they don’t know about “motherhood.”

Being a mom has been the greatest role I’ve had in life, and as much I love being a writer, I believe I was born to be a mom. I wasn’t perfect and I know I made some mistakes along the way, yet everything I was as a mother was born out of love.

“And on the day the first of you was born, I was re-born. I was not longer just a married woman; I was born again as a mother. Life changed from that exact moment that you took your first breath, and with that breath, I held mine. I held my breath out of excitement of a new baby placed in my arms, and out of fear to all the responsibilities that were not a part of my life, from that day forward.””

“The love of a mother never dies, not with time, not with distance, not with death; the love of a mother grows stronger with each passing day, with each new milestone you reach and each heartache you encounter. Your mistakes become lessons for us, and with each mistake, together we become stronger and better for it.”

“There is nothing that can or will break or lessen the love a mother has for her children; the heart of a mother is the heart of her child.”

I love my five beautiful children; they’re all unique in their own way, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’d like to think I gave them the strength to be who they are and to dream big. I know I made mistakes, yet my children and I learned through both their mistakes and mine. We’re all stronger for it. And isn’t “strength” one of the greatest gift we can give our children?

“There is the proverbial knowing that our children are not here to love us; we are here to love them.”

Wishing you love and light,

~Anne Dennish~