What I Should Have Said

You never know when your words may come back to haunt you. Had I known when I wrote a note to my daughter it would end up published I may have waxed more eloquent or chosen my words more carefully. If only I could be so wise, as to edit myself before I begin whether writing or speaking! But alas I often find instead I must explain further or remove foot, and most often apologize.
The note came about because of some recent discussions we have had about her feeling that she is not good wife material because she lacks what she feels is the appropriate drive to keep the house clean etc. I have been mulling it over ever since and while she was taking a nap all these things I wanted to say to her were going through my mind. Rather than hoping I would be able to string them all together again at a time when we were actually able to sit and talk again, I got some paper and wrote.
I love my daughter more than I could ever adequately express with the limitations of words and emotions. To say she is a treasure beyond price is the best I can come up with right now. She is the very best of me and her father and so much more. My heart breaks for her daily, yet sings for joy as well for the privilege of being her mother.
Had I given myself more time to write the note I would have added so much more, I would have reminded her of the some of the stories we have heard women tell on themselves in a group we were in. The ladies who never allow anyone to turn of the ceiling fans because they don't ever clean them, or the ones who didn't know how to cook anything that didn't come in a box, one who leaves her vacuum cleaner out all of the time and tells people who come over she was just vacuuming to cover for the mess the house is in; all of them married, some of them ones many look up to. But as I often do, I fixate on the flaws instead of building up and I don't tell her how proud I am of her for the really hard and wise choices she has been making in her personal life lately, I don't tell her I know she is harder than before to eat better. I don't tell her that I it is only because I want the very best for her that I said anything at all and I think she is wonderful no matter what. I should have said above all else I love her and nothing could ever make me stop loving her, nothing could make me ashamed of her, and if she got married today her husband would be able to proclaim he has found a priceless jewel.