One Year

We kept Will’s first birthday lo-fi due to the ongoing COVID pandemic/Delta Variant.

I’ve been reading Where The Wild Things Are to Will since he was in utero and I figured it would be the perfect theme. I love Max’s adventurous spirit and the idea of wild rumpus. I love the line, “I’ll eat you up. I love you so,” and I love the fact that once, Maurice Sendak wrote a beautifully illustrated letter to a kid…and the kid ate it.

We honored Will’s Indian and Italian heritage by feasting on pizza, mutter paneer, rice and Gobi Manchurian and quickly realized he hated his smash cake - one quick grab, some sticky fingers and the resolute belief that nope, not gonna touch soft mess again.

Dear Will:

For the past month, I’ve been trying to come up with something profound and pithy to write to you on your first birthday.

What do you say to the person who changed your life so much and for the better?

Someone who is as much a part of you as the molecules in your blood and the sunlight on your skin?

Thank you? Cheers? Good job?

So, to my little wild one on his wild one - I leave you with two things from two men who are far better writers than I.

The first is some advice from the man we call Uncle Bruce from his 2021 SXSW Keynote address:

So, rumble, young musicians, rumble. Open your ears and open your hearts. Don’t take yourself too seriously, and take yourself as seriously as death itself. Don’t worry. Worry your ass off. Have ironclad confidence, but doubt – it keeps you awake and alert. Believe you are the baddest ass in town, and, you suck!

It keeps you honest. It keeps you honest. Be able to keep two completely contradictory ideas alive and well inside of your heart and head at all times. If it doesn’t drive you crazy, it will make you strong. And stay hard, stay hungry, and stay alive. And when you walk onstage on tonight to bring the noise, treat it like it’s all we have. And then remember, it’s only rock and roll.

The second is from Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac - “One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”

Here’s as simple as it gets - You are the best of all people. The smartest, the funniest, the bravest, the sweetest. I believe in you and I will love you my whole life.

Happy first birthday, Willow Bear.

Stay hungry, stay free and do the best you can.

Mama xx