My mother, Ricki Waldman, taught me to love books. In my house we were not athletes, we did not have hobbies. We read. Voraciously. Constantly. We even had periodic "reading suppers," in which we would all sit silently around the dinner table, each immersed in our own book, paying scant attention...

My mother didn’t teach me just one thing. She taught me too many things to count, things which I can’t even articulate, things that wouldn’t make sense to anyone who isn’t me or my mother. But that is the beautiful thing about our mother-daughter relationship. I value this relationship more than...

Most of what I know about love, self-respect, and kindness came from lessons taught by my mother. My mother taught me about the strength we gather from family, both the one we are born with and the one we create for ourselves. She taught me that at our lowest points, the hand of love will catch us when we feel like we are falling through space, pulled down by the gravity of despair.

My mom is an adventurer. A passionate reader and investigator of life. A compassionate advocate for helping people. She taught me I didn't have to be a certain way just because I was female. That gave me the greatest freedom of all-- to be myself. Thanks, mom! Happy Mother's Day.