Happy Mothers Day to us, all of us - the nurturers and lovers- passionate about our lives and the people in it, in our communities and for the planet.  Caring, - opening our hearts and fearlessly enthusiastic about every good we can encourage, sponsor or support in the world within our reach in small and huge ways.  Feeling our way through the pain of the world to find the spot that can bring healing, growth and renewal. Guided by a desire that pulls from within us the means to bring life’s energy through the dark corners of despair for the world to our daily lives.  Rejoicing in the glimmers of delight that come from our touch on the people in our world.   For all the children of world, any child of any world is our child there is a joy at their presence, their hope, their possibility: each child being a renewal of love for the world.  Some of us have our own birth children and grandchildren, others of us take on elements of the world to express that aspect of creating life and it’s expression in small and large forms, a powerful expression of who we are.

Women bring children into the world, a dynamic that seems entirely separate and unique and yet it is the thread of all that is true within every culture, played out in different circumstances with different meanings assigned to the content of the experiences and the role of the mother.  Each child we learn has his own trajectory of given behaviors and innate responses but our powerful role is to enhance what is there by our love and support and get out of the way.  Women create and deliver to their communities every day ideas, actions and formulations in expression of their care for what they experience as better:  better healthcare, better education, better business practices, better and more inclusive social platforms for those underrepresented and excluded from a means to thrive and participate. 

It is a wonder to me that over the course of my life, I undertook to bring into the world five children.  The experience was like holding on to a hot iron, a development as we were one body, one being to the gradual release in the trauma of birth (yeah, sorry, birth is a trauma but a good one.)  The relentless and all encompassing intention and attention on this 7 or 8 pound sex neutral is a grip you can’t release for many years.  Absorbing your thoughts, feelings and physical being for years and years and if not thrilled, totally engaged in this person.  Seems like you have everything to do with it, but then you discover your part is really to take this love affair through its many evolutions to standing in front of your 34 year old son feeling you had so little to do with this distinct and entirely separate man.  And that is not a bad thing.  That was the program all along and this is what success looks like as a mother.

Fortunately we mothers do not have to birth children all through our lives to experience and contribute life coming from us to express love.  Like our sisters who don’t have children, we can look to see where we’re standing and what is in front of us and what is ours to do to express: our caring, our passions and our commitment to the world of our hopes and dreams.  Such as the care and development of children within our communities, the elderly and those left behind by an economy that has put stress on all while throwing many under the bus.  Such as, reaching out to the mothers in Libya, Haiti and Alabama who have had their daily lives torn asunder by things of which they had no control.  Every day is a new adventure, a new path to that expression, a new way to participate by looking around to see what is being done and what needs to be done; every stumble is more information, more knowledge about the path.  When we meet each other on the path, there is more energy to share, more reality to those unformulated yet passionate desires to fulfill our most human cares and concerns.  This to me is Mother’s Day.  A celebration of what we bring to earth every day throughout our lives.