The love of a mother, the joy and tears it brings.

This week, my incredible mom has a milestone birthday coming up in just a few days. She’s turning 70 years old.

If I know my mom, she’s going to say, “KIM, don’t be posting anything about me on social media.” Most days, I respect this boundary of hers. But at least once a year, this rebel daughter she raised misbehaves and announces to everyone and anyone who will listen just how much I love this woman and what she means to me.

There are so many things about my mom that I’m in complete awe of. One thing that has helped heal me and my kids is the fact that she keeps growing and healing herself. Anyone who has been on this inner healing journey knows just how difficult that is. And at her age, she could easily say, “Well, this is too hard, and I’m not willing to do the work.” But she doesn’t.

Not only does she take responsibility for herself and do the necessary work to heal her inner child and repair relationships, she’s also still learning to love herself. She’s putting herself first, maybe for the very first time. She matters.

Sometimes, other people, because of their own wounds, get scared by this kind of love or aren’t open to receiving it. Yet that doesn’t hold her back from continuing to show up and love whoever is open to receiving the unconditional love she has to give.

Here’s what I know. Honestly, the older I get, the more I realize that no matter how much I learn and grow, I still don’t know much. But one thing I’m learning is that when you heal and learn to care for yourself, love has a magical way of taking all your pain, suffering, and hard times and transforming them into beauty.

Love also has the power to create healthy boundaries and sometimes even remove relationships from our lives until the time comes when everyone is ready to heal. Love has a way of allowing you to keep loving the people your heart deeply aches for while sometimes learning to let go, as hard as that may be, and still remaining open.

Love also has a way of bringing people into your life, whether they’re from your past or new to your journey, who return the love you have so freely given. Love has a way of bringing you back to wholeness.

Love has a way of not ignoring the aches of our hearts but also allowing us to keep living, hopefully making our worlds just a little better than we found them. Love keeps us vulnerable. Love keeps us curious. Love keeps us authentic. It allows us to keep dreaming, not give up, and live in the present moment rather than remain trapped in the past.

My mom, for me, is love personified. How lucky I have been to be loved by her and to heal with her.

Having you next to me as our oldest daughter and your oldest granddaughter married the love of her life, and having you right by my side during one of the happiest, yet hardest, most painful, and overwhelming seasons of my life, means the world to me.

And this picture only captures a small glimpse of how much I love you.

You show up. And when I don’t know how to put one foot in front of the other, you step in and allow me to just be me.

And this picture says it all: the love of a mother, the joy and tears it brings.

All the pain we have walked through together. All the pain I have witnessed my mom work through. All of it has brought her to this season, to this new decade. And she continues to go after all the desires of her heart.

To see my mom step into this decade as her badass self, continuing to heal, grow, and choose herself, is healing for me and for generations before and after her.

Happy 70th birthday, Mom. I love you more than words can say. ❤️