Grace Notes: Other Mothers and The Mother of All

I didn't send my Mom a Mother's Day card this year; she made her transition in January. I did send a trio of cards to a beloved 100-year-old friend who's been a spiritual mother my entire life, from the days when I'd paste my artwork on the kitchen window she'd pass on her way to work (and to which she'd respond in poetry), to our adult friendship spanning four decades. Ellie and her husband never had children, yet I don't think that's why so many "young people" (as she characterized those in their 50s when she was 92!) have adopted her as a surrogate Mom. It's because, by her very essence, she engenders the deep love and appreciation we associate with mothering.

I've been blessed to enjoy this kind of relationship a few times in my life. Another was with a woman whose husband I met in the park, not long after I'd graduated from college. He brought me home to meet his wife as though I were a flea market find, and the three of us became fast friends during the year before I moved to California. I was just launching my life at 22, and Sten and Ethel provided the support and encouragement I needed to thrive — right down to lending me their old car for the final weeks prior to my relocation, so I could get around town once I'd sold mine. Ethel had multiple sclerosis (MS), and her optimism and sunny disposition in the face of her illness seem even more amazing to me now. For her birthday that year I sent a singing balloon-a-gram; the center balloon was shaped like a heart. She told me this balloon kept its helium for weeks and followed her around the house! That's the power of Love.

Another spiritual mother for 26 years and counting is Louise Hay. An old friend gifted me with Louise's signature book, You Can Heal Your Life in 1988, the same year I was blessed to meet Louise in person when she held a "Hay Ride" event in San Francisco. Her breakthrough personal growth work has sustained and healed me on many levels since then. Louise is just nine months older than my biological mother, so in many ways she really does feel like my Mom.

Who are the "other mothers" in your life? Mother's Day is a beautiful moment to let them know how much you cherish their love, their support, their wisdom. Whether they know you personally or are a public figure who's helped you via their planetary service (Oprah springs to mind), take a moment to acknowledge this gift. In the level playing field of the digital age we can connect with almost anyone, yet your thank you needn't be splashed across the social landscape unless you so choose. If you send your message via the quantum field, it will be received — at an even more profound level.

If you can and want to connect in 3D, that's always a delight. I'll call my 100+ year-old friend in the morning, and thank her again for shining her Light in my life.

Finally, there is our collective Mother, Gaia, in all her (wo)manifestations. During my awakening journey I realized how profoundly I yearned to nestle into the nurturing archetypal arms of the Great Mother. I found her in trees, in our animal kin, in metaphysical bookstores and sacred ceremony, and in the wisdom of those who had gone before me and could give a name to this longing.

Reaching our Light means daring a descent into the dark, to the ancient womb of Mystery that lives within each one, calling us to awaken and claim our power. Men and women alike are capable of this kind of birth, which knows no gender — only the willingness to open to the immanent truth of our being.

Everything arises from this awareness: how we move through the world, how we effect change, how we define what "matters" (which comes from the same root as "mother".) Uncloaked, we are cut from whole cloth — "material" in its original sense. When we abide in the Mother, who we are matters — and we are always Home.

Mother yourself, today and every day. That's the greatest grace note of all.

~ Much Love to you ~

Stand! Mother's Day Message for World Peace

This Sunday the United States celebrates Mother's Day, a holiday that was originally not a Hallmark occasion, but a call for women to put an end to war. Poet, author and activist Julia Ward Howe first championed a Mother's Peace Day in 1870. In her Mother's Day Proclamation, she exhorted, "Arise, then, women of this day! 
Arise all women who have hearts … solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
 whereby the great human family can live in peace..."

More than a century hence, women everywhere are heeding the call, via StandingWomen.org. Since 2007, this group has sent out a call for people to join hands and hearts for five minutes of silence on Mother's Day, in service to planetary peace. The global events were catalyzed by The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering, a children's story about two grandmothers whose vigil sparked an international movement.

As we awaken to our responsibility ("the ability to respond") to our Mother, and the beneficent power we can unleash, what shines through is:

It doesn't take slogans and permits. It doesn't take anger or weapons. It takes a village — and a vision. We have, and are, both. We are the ones we've been waiting for. To paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "I have a dream that one day this nation will wise up…" Let the global upwising begin!

Stand! Mother's Day Message for World Peace

This Sunday the United States celebrates Mother's Day, a holiday that was originally not a Hallmark occasion, but a call for women to put an end to war. Poet, author and activist Julia Ward Howe first championed a Mother's Peace Day in 1870. In her Mother's Day Proclamation, she exhorted, "Arise, then, women of this day! 
Arise all women who have hearts…solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
 whereby the great human family can live in peace..."

More than a century hence, women everywhere are heeding the call, thanks to Sharon Mehdi's seminal book, The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering. Written for her newborn granddaughter, the book tells the tale of two grandmothers who chose to stand silently in a local park. When asked why, they responded, "We are saving the world." People laughed at them, even as other women — and men — joined the vigil. Pretty soon more than 2,000 people filled the park, and word quickly spread until similar groups were standing all over the country.

Mehdi's book touched a chord. The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering meteorically morphed from fiction to fact as StandingWomen.org was born. READ THE REST!

On Mother's Day, Take a Stand for Peace

On Sunday, May 11th, people all over the globe will stand in silence for 5 minutes as a powerful call for peace. This remarkable event grew out of a book called The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering, which Sharon Mehdi wrote as a gift for her newborn granddaughter.

The book touched a chord with women around the world, and in 2007, the first Standing Women events took place. This year, the gatherings promise to increase exponentially. Check here for a local gathering ~ or create your own!

Read Julia Ward Howe's inspiring Mother's Day proclamation, written in 1870. It's quite a departure from today's Hallmark occasion.

Happy Mother's Day.