Sometimes all I can do in regards to the teen child is to remember that I loved him from the very first secend when the doctors placed him on my chest after 36 hours of labor. That at that moment I promised to love him for the rest of ever. That I loved him through sleepless nights and potty training and ear aches and fevers. And that now, when he is establishing his independence and making decisions that can, at times, make me question my existence on this earth, now is the rest of the beginning of it all. I must continue to open my heart as I look at him, accept him as he is. That is a mother's love. But damn if it isn't so hard and driving me to look upon the box wine as the favorite, most blessed, part of these long summer days.