For those who Mother everywhere
For those who Mother everywhere
5 May 2024 Daily Meditation
I have had many “moms” in my life. Not all of them were women. Today let’s honor all the “mothers” who got us to the point we are today.
Thank goodness for those people who come along, notice a lack and step in to fill it! Even in my youth, I was aware of those kind and loving people who filled the holes. Sometimes painfully so, as when I didn’t want to go home, begging to stay a little longer!
My maternal grandparents graciously raised us cousins while our parents were off to work! All of us kids storming through the house, taunting my grandmother, “Nana banana!” Running around that staircase and banistered upstairs hall — playing cowboys and indians outside under the bushes and in the great outdoors. How grateful I am for the older cousins as well. That playtime was a respite from things I’d still rather not think about!
In school my teachers were parents, instilling my love of reading and learning, which follows me to this day. I’m not sure if they knew or noticed the gloominess that lurked under my quiet surface, but so many of them stepped forward, women and men alike, to give me a special project, often writing a story or a poem or making a drawing. This was my early salvation.
As I approached my teens, I am amazed as I think back to people I met who helped me salvage my adolescence. One beautiful Puerto Rican woman, married to a Swedish man, who walked me through understanding my sexuality, helping me grasp my esteem as a woman. Another who encouraged me to college and a world beyond the rural world I lived in, as she talked about her son’s path to the university. What would I have become without the gentle hand of these people?
There was even a tough old mom, who let us party at her house: “I’d rather see you doing this stuff here, so you aren’t on the streets.” Another drove the VW van to Woodstock taking my friends, where I was too afraid to go. These moms took the place of my parent’s strict rule-making, teaching me that not everything was about fear and strictness. I saw that there were alternatives in the world.
I could go on and on…the professor in college who walked me through my thesis, chapter by chapter. The therapist/agency director who took a risk and hired me for my first professional position…so many beautiful people. Especially there were the dear friends who have stood by my side in times of trouble.
Last night my daughter and I were talking about how difficult kids are in the world today. In their teens, our kids can become unrecognizable to us. I had to remember what a handful I became — how hard I was for my parents to manage in my teens, and how lost I was in my twenties. How much my parents must have worried!
Yet here I am today, solid as a rock. I send out a solid thank you to the Universe, and especially to all the Mothers I have had. Blessings to all of you who have swooped in throughout my life to offer advice, mentoring, sponsoring, support, love and understanding. I could not do it without you. None of us could.
We need you! Never forget that. Even if we forget to show it.
Namaste!