Letters to Baby

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!

-Emily Dickinson

Dear baby,

I dream about who you will be at night and in my waking hours. Will you have the ability to laugh at everything like your dad? Or have my hot head? I cannot wait to meet you and discover the personality and light in your eyes. Each hour that I must wait for you to be born feels like an unending panopticon where I am suffocating from my own desire to know you.

One gift I cannot wait to give you, a gift which I hope will become a part of you is the gift of literature. I hope that whoever you become, that you always carry the label of a reader. I am going to make a promise to you that my grandmother made to me when I was small: I promise to never deny you a book. Never will I ground you from reading, or tell you no to a trip to the library. Never will I be too busy to hold you and read to you. Never will the dishes, the laundry, or the toilet overflowing forestall a chance for us to lose ourselves in a good book together.

This gift of reading was given to me, and I ache for the day that I am able to witness your adoration for literature. Someday, though far away it may be, I hope that you will also pass on this gift to your children, for it is invaluable.

"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." -Emilie Buchwald

Love,

Your mother

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