Happy Mother’s Day to all of you.
My first official Mother’s Day was spent hosting a Mother’s Day brunch for my mom and mother-in law with 6 day old first baby carried around in a snuggly while I was whipping up eggs benedict. Two English Langugage homestay students (one from Mexico, one from Japan) helped with the baby as did “Dad”. I look back on those years and describe this as my attempt at the “supermom thing”. Throw in 2 more babies over 4 years, applying for grad school (got a provisional acceptance, had to re-do 2 undergrad courses to bring up marks, had three kids under the age of 5 at home, couldn’t do it and dropped out at Thanksgiving). Whew! What was I thinking??? Perhaps that my “good”, my “worth” as a person was defined by how much I could “do”, by degrees and how well I could balance, and how skilled I was in the kitchen???
I became a mom 19 years ago and from the perspective of wisdom and years passing, I can say that now I assess my goodness and worth by the small, simple things that involve “doing a life” and that involve “being a life”. Like pausing to smell the wonderful lilacs in our back yard.  Like remembering my “moms” who have passed on; Jean, my mother in law, who lived with us for the last few months of her life, who had such a wonderful sense of humour and reminded my to laugh daily; Dora, my aunt in law, who was so very gracious and taught me how to be a lady; and Renata, my mom, who taught me so much about life and struggles, who showed me her love by the wonderful food she cooked and by the amazing clothes she sewed for me and who was the first “Wholistic Nutritionist” I ever knew, inspiring me into a 20 year career in nutrition. She taught me about surviving and how powerful the mother/daughter bond is, which scares me abit, now that I am the mom of three daughters! The fear comes from how sacred I hold my responsibility as their mom and yearning to at all times honour them as uniquely amazing whole individuals.
Today, on Mother’s Day, 2007, I also remember our Mother Earth and will join countless other women in standing in silence for 5 minutes at 1 pm local time, to “stand for” all the ways that we can honour, protect, maintain and sustain our “green mother earth” in the years to come and for our next generations. I’m not feeling called to join a big standing group or make this about anything other than a very personal, very deeply held honouring of all mothers, birth mothers and metaphorical mothers, all people and the planet for us and for us future generations.
namaste,
zoey
coach . catalyst . shakti sage
life & business coach for women