Mama Mia

Greetings all,

Happy Mothers's Day, here's a flower for you.

I have memories from a very young age.  I remember being bathed in the kitchen sink at dusk by my mother.  I was probably two years old at the time.  My very first memory was my mother driving me home from her mother's house.  There are countless thoughtful deeds she has done for me.  There are also times where she missed the mark and wounded me deeply as we all do to the ones we love from time to time. There are also times where I've been ungrateful, thoughtless, and downright unfeeling.  Such is the nature of family.

The primal bond between mothers and their children is the most powerful force there is in nature.  I've seen it both break and cast curses.  Quite simply the relationship you have with your mother will color all of your other relationships.   For most of us it is a complicated relationship.  When we pass into adulthood it can be difficult for both children and mothers to adapt to the new status.  We can become trapped into the roles we wore growing up.  Now that works both ways, adult children can also expect their parents to be the same all powerful figures from their childhood.  That's assuming there was no trauma or abuse which opens up a whole new set of complications.

Mother's Day can be hard for many reasons.  Maybe you've lost your mother to death.  Maybe your relationship was abusive and toxic.  Maybe you never knew your mother.  Holidays bring out our  wounds that haven't healed.  As we move forward in our life we have to look after ourselves, we become our own mothers and fathers.  If we can't heal our connection to our biological parents, we can work to heal our inner parental archetypes.

So why am I telling you this?  Just like us, our mothers carried their own wounds and traumas.  Many of them did the very best they could working through their pain to be there for us.  Maybe yours did good by you or maybe she didn't.  At this time it is good to acknowledge those around us that have mothered us and others.  Not all mothers are related to us.  Wherever I go I seem to encounter the energies of the Mother and the Grandmother, whether it is in the feel of the shade of trees or in the people I meet.  There are those that care for me with that same tenderness I have been blessed to experience.  So I try to judge less and love more.

How about you?  What's your relationship status with your mother or her memory?  Are you carrying the old hurts around with you everywhere, or have you managed to salve the wounds of the past?  Do you value those among us that take care of others?  Do you value your own role as caregiver?  Cut the mothers in your life some slack, and if you're a mother cut yourself some slack too.  Mother needs her consideration as much as her children.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle