Symbiotic Love

by Kimberly Koch
(Pymble New South Wales)

Happy Valentines Day my son.

My son,
The day I met you was the day that changed my life
you came to me, healthy, happy but helpless (and a bit purple!)
Our relationship, a symbiotic one.
I gave you my heart, my soul, my time, my life
and you gave me yours.

As time has gone by
my love for you has gone through metamorphosis
changing me and changing you
into an immensely beautiful and sometimes temperamental thing.
Never bad, never.

I have watched, for the most part, quietly,but sometimes
noisily, as you have gone from newborn infant,
toddler, little boy, young man, teenager
and finally, a man (oh my God, how it hurts my heart!)

I love you, fully, deeply and completely.
My love for you consumed who I was and
changed the very core of who I am.
And although it hurt me to learn to let you go,
I did. I did. I did. For you.

Because I knew I had done my best for you.
The best I could do, not perfectly, but my best.
And I knew that you needed to be free.
I did everything possible to show you how
to love, how to be loved. My gift.

I have watched you grow into a man
that knows how to love and how to be loved.
And for my sometimes small sometimes large part,
it has all been worth it, just to see you
love yourself and love another.

My son, I will always love you, always respect you,
always be there for you, in all ways.
I want you to know that. There will always be
a mother in this world, that loves you, deeply.
A symbiotic love, my son. Forever.