Mothers

springboards for reflection

Prayer
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"I want you to know I'm praying for you if you are like Tamar, struggling with infertility, or a miscarriage.
 
I want you to know that I'm praying for you if you are like Rachel, counting the women among your family and friends who year by year and month by month get pregnant, while you wait.
 
I want you to know I'm praying for you if you are like Naomi, and have known the bitter sting of a child's death.
 
I want you to know I am praying for you if you are like Joseph and Benjamin, and your Mom has died.
 
I want you to know that I am praying for you if your relationship with your Mom was marked by trauma, abuse, or abandonment, or she just couldn't parent you the way you needed.
 
I want you to know I am praying for you if you've been like Moses' mother and put a child up for adoption, trusting another family to love your child into adulthood.
 
I want you to know I am praying for you if you've been like Pharaoh's daughter, called to love children who are not yours by birth (and thus the mother who brought that child into your life, even if it is complicated).
 
I want you to know I am praying for you if you, like many, are watching (or have watched) your mother age, and disappear into the long goodbye of dementia.
 
I want you to know that I am praying for you if you, like Mary, are pregnant for the very first time and waiting breathlessly for the miracle of your first child.
 
I want you to know that I am praying for you if your children have turned away from you, painfully closing the door on relationship, leaving you holding your broken heart in your hands. And like Hagar, now you are mothering alone.
 
I want you to know that I am praying for you if motherhood is your greatest joy and toughest struggle all rolled into one.
 
I want you to know that I am praying for you if you are watching your child battle substance abuse, a public legal situation, mental illness, or another situation which you can merely watch unfold.
 
I want you to know that I am praying for you if you like so many women before you do not wish to be a mother, are not married, or in so many other ways do not fit into societal norms.
 
I want you to know that I am praying for you if you see yourself reflected in all, or none of these stories.
 
This mother's day, wherever and whoever you are, we walk with you. You are loved. You are seen. You are worthy. And may you know the deep love without end of our big, wild, beautiful God who is the very best example of a parent that we know.  Amen."

​-- by Amy Young and modified by Heidi Carrington Heath
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Original Link by Amy Young

The big, wild, beautiful God
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The big, wild beautiful God can be imagined almost any way you want.  You can imagine this God as a force, as love, as mystery, as energy, or as a really great parent -- abba or amma.    There is something true in all these ways of imagining, including the parental imagery.  But it's very important to recognize that,  if you imagine God as a parent, then God must be the kind of parent who gets down on her knees and plays with you, meeting you where you are, and wanting your happiness.   The kind of parent who is not preoccupied with reward or punishment, or with being flattered.  The kind of parent who shares in your suffering and also your joy, and who can guide you toward whatever fulness of life is possible for you, relative to the circumstances at hand.   The kind of parent who can laugh with you, and dance with you, and die with you.   The kind of parent who is the kind of parent you'd like to be and sometimes are: big and wild and beautiful.  (Jay McDaniel)

Mother's Love Song
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The Mother is one story of motherhood that spans all ages, all families,
and even all the gender norms - but most of all, it’s a mother's love song.

                                                                                                   -- Brandi Carlile
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---

I think we all think that we’re really empathetic and compassionate people, and we probably are. And then the moment you have a child, shit gets real, you know? You start realizing that there’s no such thing as just a junkie, there’s no such thing as just an immigrant, there’s no such thing as a casualty. Everybody is somebody’s baby, and that is a trembling and powerful thing. So that’s definitely made me feel really serious about protecting children and babies. But also moms and dads and aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews. There’s a line of compassion that seems to have been cut by recent events, and I just want to try to be a reminder of that in some way.  

  -- Brandi Carlile (interviewed in Shondaland)

​Welcome to the end of being alone inside your mind
You're tethered to another and you're worried all the time
You always knew the melody but you never heard it rhyme
She's fair and she is quiet, Lord, she doesn't look like me
She made me love the morning, she's a holiday at sea
The New York streets are busy as they always used to be
But I am the mother of Evangeline

The first things that she took from me were selfishness and sleep
She broke a thousand heirlooms I was never meant to keep
She filled my life with color, canceled plans, and trashed my car
But none of that was ever who we are
Outside of my windows are the mountains and the snow
I'll hold you while you're sleeping and I wish that I could go
All my rowdy friends are out accomplishing their dreams
But I am the mother of Evangeline

And they've still got their morning paper and their coffee and their time
And they still enjoy their evenings with the skeptics and the wine
Oh, but all the wonders I have seen, I will see a second time
From inside of the ages through your eyes
You are not an accident where no one thought it through
The world has stood against us, made us mean to fight for you
And when we chose your name we knew that you'd fight the power too
You're nothing short of magical and beautiful to me
Oh, I'll never hit the big time without you
So they can keep their treasure and their ties to the machine
'Cause I am the mother of Evangeline
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They can keep their treasure and their ties to the machine
'Cause I am the mother of Evangeline

Prayer for Mothers

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson
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​Nobody makes something from nothing,
not even God.
But God molds the tohu va-vohu,
the chaos swirling in the deep,
and -- miraculous to say! -- life emerges.

Life is simple at first,
then complex. Reflexive at first,
then conscious. Life becomes.

It takes all that love,
all that power,
all that guidance,
but life does emerge, waddle, and walk.

Mother, my own creator:
You've always been able to mold the deep chaos
and produce life.
Cradling the babies you produced,
powerful love that made a world for your children,
deep wisdom creating a path to walk, a portal to enter.

You gave me life.
Your nurtured life.
You instructed, taught, disciplined
and loved.

Latest mask of the divine,
you taught me I could trust,
showed me I'd be lifted when I cried out,
gave me faith in faith itself.

How can I bless you when you are the very blessing of my blessing?
My default parenting is yours,
endless fountain of love.