Full circle

My daughter doesn't know it yet, but she turned into me tonight. In the middle of one of those hair raising episodes between teenage daughters and their middle aged mothers, words came out of her mouth that I remember saying, word for word, to my mother in a similar scene. She then followed those words up with the ones that I thought back then but would have never said out loud.

Despite the ugliness of tonight's scene, one that has played out in numerous permutations lately, I also just had one of those important lightbulb moments of understanding about my own mother. My face is still appropriately maternally stern, but underneath this visage, there's a smile lurking.

I finally got it, and I've finally let it go.

C., kiddo, I do love you, more than you understand now.

Mom, thanks. I love you too, more than I ever showed.

mothers, daughters