The relationship between a mother and daughter is one of the most profound bonds in life. A mother feels her daughter's first kick during pregnancy, labors to bring her daughter into the world and watches as she takes her first breath of life. Similarly, a daughter opens up a new world and range of emotions to her mother, allowing her to feel an unconditional love she didn't know she possessed.

For new moms in awe of their daughter's first step, veteran moms in a panic as their daughter leaves for her first prom, or seasoned moms who have just caught themselves saying "Because I said so!", each will be touched and inspired by these heartwarming stories that share the life-defining moments of the mother/daughter relationship.

Celebrity contributions include stories by Jacquelyn Mitchard and Joan Borysenko. Chapters include A Mother's Love; A Daughter's Love; Memories; Challenges; Lessons; Like Mother, Like Daughter; Loss and Healing and Timeless Wisdom.

This is the perfect book for all the special women in our lives for Mother's Day, a birthday, or any day.

The Magic Jar Years

One day a mother brought home a small jar and gave it to her little girl on her birthday. She told her little girl that the jar was magic, and she could write to her mommy about anything in the world, put it in the jar, and later, in its place, there would be a note for her. Soon the jar became a special part of their lives.

The little girl loved to get letters from her mommy. They always told her how special she was and had lots of XXXXs and OOOOs on them. Often there were reminders of something special they had planned together the next day, or a good luck letter if there was a dance recital coming up. Sometimes, too, there would be a little gift in the jar and a note telling hew how proud her mommy was of her. She kept all of her mommy's letters in a pretty box by her bed.

The mother treasured each of her little girl's letters too.

There were crayoned "I love yous," tea-party invitations, requests for ballet slippers, and even some Mother's Day cards that had been folded and folded and folded just to fit in the jar. Those always made the mother smile. There was one where her little girl told her she was afraid of the dark, and that very night a small light was placed in her room, and all was well. Another favorite came when their dog Muffin was expecting puppies; there in the jar was a little not that read, "You're going to be a grandma!" The mother kept all of those very special letters safely tucked in a chest at the end of her bed.

As the years went by, that little girl grew into a young lady and then got married and started a home of her own. For the first time, the jar sat empty. The mother dusted the jar every day and sometimes looked inside, remembering—sad that the magic jar years had to end.

One day the young lady came to visit her mother. She went straight to her mother's room, opened the chest at the end of her bed, and found what she was looking for She folded the piece of paper and put it in the the jar, and handed it to her mother. The mother opened the magic jar and there was that note from so long ago, "You're going to be a grandma!"

And when that baby boy was born months later, there was the jar sitting in his nursery with a blue bow tied around it, and a note tact read, "Magic jar years never end; they are always just beginning."

Cassie Marie Moore

¬2003. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Chicken Soup for the Mother and Daughter Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Dorothy Firman, Julie Firman and Frances Firman Salorio. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442.