Mother Love

The sweetest thing happened recently.

My mother just turned 90. As she gets older, I notice a gentleness growing more and more in her. To hug her is like hugging a feather. She is so incredibly 'light' now. Though small in stature, her heart and compassion have widened. Something I noticed in my dad as he grew older too.

As a few of us were sitting around the morning after her birthday celebration, one of the younger family members broke down in tears. While some were offering solutions to the problem at hand, my darling mother rose in silence and shuffled over to her, wafting her sweet arm around our girl.

She was as light as air. I can't explain it any clearer. My eyes welled with tears to watch such compassion. Usually, I am the one to step in, but the space allowed my mother to really be the Great Grand Mother of our family, to offer her gentle love to this one.

There was no fuss. It was an act that simply arose out of the impulse of love.

I find it an interesting thing that when babies arrive, they are somehow ether-like, as if still from the 'other' realm. And their lightness stays for a while. I see it in my granddaughters, 8 and 6 years old. To be around them reflects this same lightness of spirit I see in my mother. I just want to be around that. There is something settling, like the cares of life no longer matter for a while.

It seems as we grow into adulthood we lose that lightness, and start to carry the weight of our woes.

But what is this lightness of spirit?

I believe it is Love.

That love is unbridled in them. It has not yet been covered over in the children, and in my mother, layers of worry or the bitterness of life have left her, leaving what is always there - just Love.

No matter who you are, you are born of a mother. I know I am going to bow even more in gratitude for what I keep learning from this Golden Elder, my mother.

May we all remember that our essential nature is Love.

And may the children and elders be our teachers, as celebrate the wonder of motherhood this Mother's Day. And may we remember our mothers in their absence, if they have left this earthly realm, for what they gave so selflessly, and the legacy they left to be carried through us.

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Womantime Retreat - Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Day Woman is a place for all women to come and just be. We all carry the ancestry of our tribe. Sometimes, our relationships with our mothers have been less than ideal. Being in a safe space with other women can be an opportunity to reconfigure one's relationship with womanhood. It's time for us to unshackle from these and open to our true nature, love. Have a read here, for what women are saying about Womantime Retreat. There are just a couple of places left. We'd love to have you join us this year.