the cloth from which I was cut

There was a time when I was transitioning from youth to adulthood when I had these strange realizations of all the ways I was turning into my mother - I would say the things she used to say to me, mannerisms, even the sound of her voice.  People would often tell me things like, "wow, you sound just like your mom" or "you are definitely karen's daughter".  At the time I didn't know quite how I felt about it - I was trying to develop my own identity independent from anyone else's, I wasn't old enough to be so much like my mom.  But as my parenting years have continued I have grown to appreciate what a compliment it is to be "just like my mom".

When I was a kid, I was the only person in my family who didn't have dark hair and dark eyes, the only one who didn't like skiing and I felt I was a slightly different flavor than the rest of my family.  I had suspicions that I was adopted.  One day I needed a copy of birth certificate for school, so my mom looked through the files in the study but "couldn't find it"... my suspicions were confirmed.  At that age I couldn't see beyond the differences and that is what I focused on.  I still remember the first time someone told me I looked "just like my dad" - I was baffled - "but he is a man with dark hair, glasses and a mustache!  I am a young, blonde girl unlike him in many ways, how can you possibly think I look like him?"  Now I am an adult (or at least feeling like one more and more all the time) and I hear my mom's voice when I speak, I cook like her and I have her adventurous and independent mothering style - I see my dad's toothy grin in the mirror, I have his inaccurate sense of what can be accomplished in a day and his relentless optimism about life.  My hair has darkened, I have fallen in love with skiing and I feel in so many ways that I am like them - I am able to see beyond the differences and realize with great love - they are the cloth from which I was cut.

The Gordon & Karen Wood Posterity August 2015