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To move from child to adult or learn what one’s self is in relationship to another or understand the difference between mother and daughter requires a coordinated effort of kicks and held breath. | | I wasn’t born in this house in Texas but I might as well have been. | | All I could do was to offer you an opinion upon one minor point—a daughter needs a room of her own in her mother’s home. | | The scissors rest against my back and make satisfying sounds of cutting hair in spots I can’t see. | | She and I are made of the same material, the same dark eyes and hard-earned love. | | She is far away again, road noise and a couple hundred miles of distance between us. | | She is skilled at allowing space for the autonomy of others and has given me the gift of space since my gestation in her body, the first act of gracious space holding all living people experience, an ordinary devotion.