A Most Majestic Title

I've been thinking about Kate Middleton today.

I mean, how could I not be, right? She's on the cover of every news outlet and the world over is celebrating the birth of her baby - a future king.

I was imagining what it must be like - to dream of and decorate a nursery with no budget or limits. No old, builder-grade "just a shade off" carpet or creaky floorboards. To have the very best designers in the world at her disposal ready to create a dreamlike, perfect space for her new prince.

I was imagining what it must be like - to have the world waiting with intense curiosity - eager to know every detail of her labor and who was there and who she called and told first and do they even use telephones for such a thing?

I was imagining what it must be like - to watch her husband, William. A future king himself who lost his mother so young and all of that pressure and all of those memories and expectations and comparisons hovering overhead and pacing outside the front door of the hospital.

Their lives seem like a fairy tale. Truly. A real, live fairy tale unfolding right before our eyes and I, for one, just can't help but look and wonder and imagine what it must be like to live in that world.

And, yet - I already know.

Because not long ago, a most majestic title was first bestowed on me.

It is noble and honorable and the jewels on this crown are bought over time with self-sacrifice, patience, long nights, and tears. They are warrior jewels - representing many not-small victories over selfishness and pride. A dying to self. A pressing, ever eager sense of another's needs. In a thousand ways. In a thousand moments.

This crown? It's worn on the heart.

But, the title?

I love the way it sounds.
I love how it feels.
I love what it means.

So, tonight - as I read the news and sit and wonder what life must be like for the future queen, I imagine her favorite title will be the one she just received in that swaddled baby boy looking up at her.

The noble and honorable title she shares with so many others:

Mum.