Wishes for Avalea on her First Birthday

Canadian artist, educator, Elizabeth Cunningham, wrote this for her granddaughter:

Wishes for Avalea on her First Birthday

Dear Avalea,

As you slowly but surely

come to standing,

even step out a little into the world,

may you find balance

in the place called here.

You need not always be looking back

or wondering what is next.

Stand still.

There is a gift in the present.

I wished for your first year

a place of grace in your mother’s arms.

For your second: a sense of home

where you need not be

anywhere else at all.