A Letter to My Daughter

My beautiful daughter,

I am thinking of you

while you sit in the bathtub downstairs,

your sad song echoing in the bathroom,

Guitar strumming,

your voice is bittersweet,

beautiful and haunting,

How do I explain this?

You being thirteen years old

has nothing to do with this

has everything to do this this,

you are on the cusp of something beautiful,

something dangerously, wickedly wonderful

Life is here waiting and you

are here to savor,

to experience,

to love and laugh,

to cry and sob

these are all one and the same,

Open your heart

and let the world in.

Beautiful daughter,

Your fingertips

touch canvas and dreams flow on to paper

colors both dark and light, these are all parts of you

the dark and the light,

I am telling you

I understand your sadness

your unexplained grief and angst towards the world

where you want to tear a hole in the sky and walk out of this mess,

leave it all behind,

Beautiful daughter,

I am writing this truth down,

a hurt that digs deep inside you,

to the white of the bone,

till there is nothing left to cling to,

But my daughter,

I am telling you

there is beauty in truth,

beauty in being in the moment when

the sun catches the reflection in the window

and you wake up,

the quiet of the morning

no one is stiring,

not the orange cat we call floyd has even

stirred next to your head,

It is in this exact moment,

time and space when you

wake up to greet the day,

this is what I felt when you came into my life

your eyes peered out

curious and shiny

you did not utter a cry but rather

quietly smiling

taking into the enorminity of what you will

conquer and experience,

I remember looking into your eyes,

newborn daughter,

beautiful human,

glorious being,

I remember looking into your eyes and feeling what you are feeling now,

being in the moment,

the quiet of the new day

the roar of the sun rising,

music filling my head as it fills and surrounds you,

this and many more

you are not alone

you are not alone,

Open your heart

and let the world in.