on motherhood

  

This weekend, I soaked in the energy of Mother's Day as I sat in sunshine with my mom, looked at her wild herbs and her seedlings reaching up to the sky, as we laughed and existed in the same space. Later as I hugged my kids, as we chatted and joked, as I put seeds and nuts out for our feathered friends, as I placed new blooms into the soggy earth, as I walked through birdsong and lemon balm, as I received art and surprises, as I smelled roses and sunflowers that now live by my window.

There are stereotypes about what it means to be a mother or a father. Some of those stereotypes are rooted in the archetypes, in the core essence, while others are based on society's lenses, expectations, a vague outline that's become less profound which each tracing.

So, what does it mean to be a mother?

I think it starts with the biology. Or, I should say, biology gives us a concrete clue. Even though every mother doesn't have that link or pathway (which, to be clear, is also valid), the biology captures the core essence for me, like a storybook opening and revealing: creation, home, connection, birth, nurture. Or, beyond our own personal biology, there's ecology, the way Earth holds the same themes. And, the themes repeat throughout life, shifting form.

The energy of motherhood has a wild, wild element to it. Innate, passionate, gentle but also quite the opposite. Creation isn't dainty; it's aliveness.

It's partially what makes being a mother unique from being a father. The energy behind feeling a soul growing in your body.  The waters alive and expansive, the whisper turning into wild and beautiful substance. Pushing this new human out into the world to your own awaiting hands and heart. Building a home-nest that feels safe for them to exist within and to return to. Loving and advocating with tender fierceness. Nurturing them into growth of body and emotions, then mind and dreams.

the storm devours the shoreline
and when morning light touches the edges,
a new shape has formed;
your laughter lives here, and so do your tears

Here's to creation, to the nurturing impulse, to growth and love that lives on and on. ♡