{"id":2515,"date":"2006-03-12T20:01:50","date_gmt":"2006-03-13T03:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/?p=2515"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:44:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:44:36","slug":"full-circle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2006\/03\/12\/full-circle\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Circle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Full Circle <\/strong>(for my mother)<\/p>\n<p>You held your infant daughter<br \/>\nin your arms<br \/>\nagonizing, cajoling,<br \/>\nwilling your love to her.<br \/>\nThis baby expected<br \/>\nperfection&#8211;<br \/>\nthat you read her mind<br \/>\nand provide<br \/>\nevery need, every want.<br \/>\nSometimes that infant<br \/>\narises now,<br \/>\nand your daughter rails<br \/>\nagainst you<br \/>\nfor not possessing omniscience.<\/p>\n<p>You jiggled your toddler daughter<br \/>\non your lap<br \/>\nas she laughed,<br \/>\nsinging to her,<br \/>\ncalling her your &#8220;little Punkin.&#8221;<br \/>\nThis half-pint drank<br \/>\nyour love<br \/>\nas a thirsty babe<br \/>\nguzzled the milk of life into every cell.<br \/>\nSometimes that toddler<br \/>\ngazes now<br \/>\nwith adoration for her infinite<br \/>\nmother<br \/>\ncontent and whole in her trust.<\/p>\n<p>You watched your teenage daughter<br \/>\nfrom afar<br \/>\nas she brooded,<br \/>\nwishing her victory<br \/>\nover that devil called depression.<br \/>\nThis young woman envied<br \/>\nyour detachment<br \/>\nand accused you<br \/>\nof confusing her<br \/>\nand burdening her beyond control.<br \/>\nSometimes that girl-woman<br \/>\nrages now<br \/>\ncrying, wondering where<br \/>\nyou hid<br \/>\nyour secret fountain of peace.<\/p>\n<p>You love your grown daughter<br \/>\nwith all your life<br \/>\nas she strives,<br \/>\nreaching to her<br \/>\nwith the gift of friendship.<br \/>\nThis woman recognizes<br \/>\nyour humanity<br \/>\nand gently removes you<br \/>\nfrom the pedestal<br \/>\nto a place in her heart.<br \/>\nSometimes this woman<br \/>\nperceives now<br \/>\nthat though we are family<br \/>\nwe can meet<br \/>\nsomewhere in the middle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Full Circle (for my mother) You held your infant daughter in your arms agonizing, cajoling, willing your love to her. This baby expected perfection&#8211; that you read her mind and provide every need, every want. Sometimes that infant arises now, and your daughter rails against you for not possessing omniscience. You jiggled your toddler daughter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,28,34,16,215],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aenigmas","category-humanities","category-motherhood","category-nature","category-poetry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2515"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10317,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2515\/revisions\/10317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}