" The first of these pillars is mirroring, and as the name suggests, it has to do with a person’s being seen and reflected in another. In mirroring, one’s strengths and vulnerabilities are seen and appreciated in equal measure. The phrase that has emerged to describe this reciprocal interconnectedness is “the gleam in the mother’s eye.” Though the experience need not—and does not—transpire only between mother and child, it is the idea of the loving maternal gleam that translates: a readable gaze that says “I see you and I love you” without demanding perfection. "

― Christine Montross , Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration