My blog knows mixed success in my family: my father refers to it as navel-gazing, half of my cousins read it, and few of my uncles and aunts do, sporadically. Which, to be fair, can be attributed in large part to the blog content – I primarily target people under 40, with my usually silly stories. I find it therefore extremely endearing that my mom’s best friend faithfully follows my blog, and comments on most posts either in the comment section or offline.

She sent me today this notice in the Globe and Mail (Montreal newspaper) for submissions for personal essays, for the chance to be featured in the 25th anniversary of the newspapers’ Facts and Arguments column.

On my way to the airport I read this notice and thought about you. Your unique style and the ideas that run through your mind must be shared. Think about taking the possibility of writing an essay for the Globe and Mail; I think that when you write, you are an extension of your mom.

How did she know? Every time I write, I write as though my mom will read and critique my words, as she did all through my schooling, often to my intense irritation. My mother was a talented writer, an avid reader, and a perpetual student: her thirst for knowledge was impossible to satisfy. Writing, to her, was simple: communicate simply and truthfully – since anything written must inevitably betray the author’s follies and weaknesses to the reader. I just know that she would have approved of this blog, read it assiduously, enjoyed (most of) the silly stories, and discussed minutely what my writing, more so than the content, says about me, voluntarily and involuntarily.

Just as my writing provides my mother’s friend a link to my mom, her readership gives me similar satisfaction, and validation. I’m flattered and touched that she, who knew my mother so well, deems my writing worthy of broader exposure. The theme, Moment of Truth, could not be better suited to my mother’s legacy. The Universe is definitely not being subtle with its hints.

I’ll definitely keep y’all posted, should my essay be selected to appear in the Globe and Mail!