My Very Own Star

My charming, funny, kind, intelligent, strong, athletic and completely beautiful oldest daughter turned 11 today - and I feel myself wanting to freeze time right here and now.  She's beginning to blossom into a young woman, and I want to keep my little girl for a while longer. I simply adore her.

Stella has been a real joy in my life, and I have been awestruck by her from the very beginning.   From the moment she was born, she wanted to engage the world around her, her big, blue eyes looking intently at everyone even as she drew her first breath.  I almost can't remember a time when she couldn't talk, because she so wanted to communicate with and understand what makes people tick from babyhood on. 

Intensity.  That's a character she had and still owns.  And it's always been a good kind of intensity.  Intensity balanced with compassion and a helpful spirit.  She also has integrity.  You can see both traits in everything she applies herself to.  This probably most noticeable when she competes in sports.  She's the girl out on the soccer field with a hungry look in her eye and a drive that's evident in every aggressive angle she cuts out there, going after that ball and looking ahead several plays to the goal.  She puts her heart and everything else she's got into the game.  But she is always fair and always a great sport, and she's a leader who supports and encourages her teammates. I'm continually amazed by her presence of mind and her intuitive ability to bring out the best in people around her.  I am ridiculously proud of her, even though I have very little to do with who she is.  She is just herself, as we all are.  I can only nudge her toward her best self, and hope I don't mess her up somehow in the process.

Stella is the child that's eager to please, but who has enough confidence in her own inner voice to question things when necessary.  She's got heart and spunk.  She's balanced.  I say that all the time, but she really is.  The world is going to be her oyster, yet she doesn't take a single bit of her gifts and good fortune for granted.  She strives constantly to follow a good and right path, and to deserve the positive feedback she gets from people nearly every day of her life.  She's got the perfect mix of humility and self-confidence.  I hope she never loses that!

Sometimes I can be a little hard on Stella.   Because she has always been so easy to reason with and has been such a great kid and so eager to please, and so driven toward truth and goodness, that I am easily startled by her human slip ups and her occasional cranky moods, and I can react harshly.  I selfishly expect more out of her, and she gets an occasional overly harsh tongue-lashing from me.  I feel so badly when I do that.  It's unfair to hold my young daughter to standards I can't even meet myself.  I always apologize, but there is irony in that.  Stella has usually already forgiven me and she apologizes too.  She's the calmer head of the two of us by a long shot. 

My lovely daughter is simply an amazing person.  I'm blessed beyond measure to have her in my life.  And I've named her well:  Stella Claire.  This translates from the Latin roots to mean "Bright Star."  And that, she most certainly is.