Every so often, I meet a person who captures with words some of the really deep truths I wish I’d known way back when… As a mother, as a pediatrician and child advocate, I often dredge up some of my own very best words hoping to connect, to motivate, maybe even to inspire. But more often than not, I find myself merely repeating one of the many stories I grew up hearing.

I was lucky to grow up in a family of storytellers, and when I ‘met’ Kelly Corrigan I knew we must be twin daughters of different mothers. That I grew up in Pittsburgh and she in Philly seemed only a trivial detail in the order of things. Her book, The Middle Place, contains a story she tells at this Mother’s Day luncheon, and it’s recorded for you in the video clip that follows.

Happy Mother’s Day. Of all of the many things I meant to say, this might be the keeper: Every day can be Mother’s Day if we remember to celebrate and share the gifts we’ve been given as women.