There is a great need to be mothering the world together right now.
Wild Mercy, Mirabai Starr
While visiting my Kaitlin several years ago, she took me to the Denver Art Museum. This sculpture captured my attention and has stuck with me since. The initial connection is obvious, the large momma encasing her four successive children between her legs in a way both gentle and protective. Each child looks like my own. Kaitlin, the oldest, the leader, one hand on momma, one on her brother. Anthony, smiling, lighter, open armed around his sister. Janine, still a baby, looking for momma, always a mommy’s girl, protectively keeping her brother close. Nicholas the little one, the baby, wide eyed, loved. Of course, they all were loved. All are loved. So very loved.
The greatest gifts in my life are my children. And I would not have them without their father, my husband Rich, who I have been married to for 35 years on Monday. I am so very blessed. And yet, as I write this I know they are not “mine.” They are a part of me, as I am a part of them. But they are not “mine.” They are them. Their own. As it should be.
This is what the artist says about her sculpture: “We are all from this Mother, all from this Earth: made of her and will return to her. The Mother holds the largest child, who’s holding the next child, who’s holding the next and so on. I love the idea that we all come from the Earth, generation after generation; an endless family of life.”
I get a sense of peace in this. We are all a part of an endless family of life. And, as Mirabai Starr suggests, we need to mother one another.
Mother’s Day 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, for me was filled with love and family. A Zoom meeting with my sisters and brothers, facetime with my daughters, a day in the sun on my back deck with my sons and their girlfriends, steaks on the grill, delicious wine that Mary brought back from her trip to New Zealand, thoughtful cards, a delivery from Edible Arrangements, a surprise early morning drop off of Wawa coffee from my sweet neighbors next door and gorgeous flower arrangements. The day looked, smelled and tasted delicious.
Yesterday, I was mothered with kindness and love and laughs and good food. Today I celebrate 35 years married to the same good man. Life goes on in the pandemic and life is still very good.
Thoughts & Prayers 