Dear Princess Zurg,

I wonder why the relationship between mother and daughter is so complicated.  Nine years ago I was so happy to learn that I’d just given birth to a baby girl, and it might have been that having lost my own mother a mere sixteen months earlier, I was subconsciously hoping to recreate a mother-daughter relationship.  I read that in a book once.  There might be something to it.  I don’t know.  I suspect that in my case, I was hoping to recreate myself–and that this time I’d do a better job. 

I think sometimes that genetics burdened you with my worst traits and gave you the shaft when it came to my best ones.  It’s frustrating to be so alike and yet so different.  But then I remember that I’m not recreating myself.  I’m getting to know you.  Your flaws are your own, and your virtues are yours, too.  I’m not the same as I was before we met, and I’m not through changing.  Neither are you.  We’ll shape each other’s souls as long as we live. 

Happy birthday, my first girl.

Love, Mother