hoops's Journal

Another letter from my mother showed up at my door today, it reads as follows:

Dear A,

Thank you for bringing C, D, and L over. They are so alive and curious. They are wonderful. It was really good to spend a little time with them. You looked well.

In an effort to better understand and gain some clarity I have reread your two letters and tried to recall the conversations we had. I realized that while I have understood the meaning of the words I didn't understand the message.

I could be wrong about this, I am not perfect, but I believe now that the message, when you spoke of boundaries, was that the boundary between your personality and my personality are blurred and that you needed to define better who you are, and what you want to let go is the entanglement. I could be wrong, but what I think you are saying is you want to be able to establish a more proper level of intimacy between us.

Your dad told me you are still open to a friendly letter exchange. It was a mistake not to take you up on it right away, my eyes were not yet open. When you are willing, and as long as we can have some mutually agreed upon ground rules, I would like to reconsider.

I hope you will feel free to tell me what you you need. I will listen or read with an open mind. I will refrain from any kinds of judgments. I will only give advice when you ask me to.

I greatly miss you and look forward to hearing from you.

Love,
Mother

With the letter was the book "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.