I have long known, and I think anyone who knows my daughter knows, that Kate marches to a different drummer. I like, dislike, and wonder about that all at the same time. Kate never ceases to intrigue me with her surprising slant on.....well, on everything!
On a recent New York subway adventure, Kate brightly commented, "Don't you love graffiti? The colors, the bubble letters. The walls look so pretty! I love it!".....Not always the words themselves, of course, but something in Kate sees past those. She sees....I don't know....art. One less imaginative (like her mom) might see....perhaps vandalism.
A few weeks before our trip, Kate commented about a particular adult saying, "She's a hippie, Mommy." When I cautioned Kate that her comment was in my humble opinion rude, Kate responded, "Why? Hippies tried to save the world!" That's not the way I remember it, but that's Kate.
Kate makes me laugh, she makes me cry. I think most especially, she makes me think. I love that about her....the unpredictability, the dry wit and not so innocent Kate-isms. She is an old soul in a teen body. In many ways, she gets it. In many other ways, I hope she someday will.
The other day as Kate started out the door, I called after her in what I thought was an oh so obvious tip of the hat to Star Wars, "May the force be with you." Kate never hesitated a moment. Looking back, she immediately responded, "And also with you." Those confirmation classes are really working, aren't they? Does this mean I am R2D2 and she is Methodist?
Interesting that it was most recently our New York City trip that reminded me again of Kate's saucy smarts and savvy. I worried a little when she grabbed a subway pole and seemed to know exactly what to do with it. (She tells me pole dancing is a great exercise....something else I did not know and certainly not at age 13.) I miss her ruffles and little girl lace, I miss her hats. I miss her little girl ways. They've been replaced with jeans with holes and almost constant tees and, yes, a little too much sass at times. She is music video; I am a good book. She is mustard (spicy brown, of course); I am mayo (Plain Duke's). She is Bieber; I am Buble. I wish she had stayed little a little longer. Fate and circumstance have forced her to grow up fast. But we still find moments when Kate is just my little girl, and I am just Mommy. Those are among my favorite moments in time. Those are moments I treasure.
Back to NYC, my "grown-up" daughter disappeared briefly on our trip (she had no idea there was any reason to be concerned), only to return with a Mother's Day gift chosen for me at a shop around the corner. With all her quirks...notice I said her quirks...... with all our total and absolute disconnects at times, this is a quite undeniably a uniquely special person in the making, a person I want to understand better.
Kate talks about "coincidinks" (pronounced co.ink.ee.dink...no idea how it's spelled. Of course, in the world according to Kate, "Spelling only matters if you are in a spelling class....the important thing is if you are communicating." What???? My English teacher pedigree will beg to differ.) A coincidink is when the stars align in such a way that something interesting or surprising happens....sort of a merger of coincidence and something meant to be. What a great word, even if I can't spell it! It almost sounds like what it is. I wonder if it's a coincidink that Kate is mine. Whether yes or no, thank you, God.
No comments:
Post a Comment