If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, sheās gonna call me Point B,
because that way she knows that no matter what happens,
at least she can always find her way to me.
And Iām going to paint solar systems on the backs of her hands,
so she has to learn the entire universe before she can say,
āOh, I know that like the back of my hand.ā
And sheās going to learn that this life will hit you hard in the face,
wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach.
But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
There is hurt here that cannot be fixed by Band-Aids or poetry.
So the first time she realizes that Wonder Woman isnāt coming,
Iāll make sure she knows she doesnāt have to wear the cape all by herself.
Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers,
your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal. Believe me, Iāve tried.
āAnd, baby,ā Iāll tell her, ādonāt keep your nose up in the air like that.
I know that trick; Iāve done it a million times.
Youāre just smelling for smoke so you can follow the trail back to a burning house,
so you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him.
Or else find the boy who lit the fire in the first place,
to see if you can change him.ā
But I know she will anyway, so instead Iāll always keep an extra supply of chocolate and rain boots nearby,
because there is no heartbreak that chocolate canāt fix.
Okay, thereās a few heartbreaks that chocolate canāt fix.
But thatās what the rain boots are for.
Because rain will wash away everything, if you let it.
I want her to look at the world through the underside of a glass-bottom boat, to look through a microscope at the galaxies that exist on the pinpoint of a human mind, because thatās the way my mom taught me.
That thereāll be days like this.
ā« Thereāll be days like this, my momma said. ā«
When you open your hands to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises;
when you step out of the phone booth and try to fly and the very people you want to save are the ones standing on your cape;
when your boots will fill with rain,
and youāll be up to your knees in disappointment.
And those are the very days you have all the more reason to say thank you.
Because thereās nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times itās sent away.
You will put the wind in winsome, lose some.
You will put the star in starting over, and over.
And no matter how many land mines erupt in a minute, be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called life.
And yes, on a scale from one to over-trusting, I am pretty damn naive.
But I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar.
It can crumble so easily,
but donāt be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it.
āBaby,ā Iāll tell her, āremember, your momma is a worrier, and your poppa is a warrior, and you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more.ā
Remember that good things come in threes and so do bad things.
And always apologize when youāve done something wrong.
But donāt you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.
Your voice is small, but donāt ever stop singing.
And when they finally hand you heartache,
when they slip war and hatred under your door and offer you handouts on street-corners of cynicism and defeat,
you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother.