the mother we give birth to

What gives us the strength to go slow is love

Mother’s Day we think of the ideal mother: she makes us safe, she loves us, she is generous, patient, she is wise. This mother is no where in the world; this mother we are giving birth to all the time in ourselves. She comes when we give up on having our needs met by the world or other people and we realize that we are the ones we have been waiting for. 

We are the mother we need. No one else knows what we need like we do. But to become clear, very clear about what we need, we must find the strength to slow down. We must go very, very slow, because we are making tiny but important decisions all the time, choices that result in our wellness or our continued suffering. 

It takes tremendous love to allow ourselves to go that slow, slow enough to be clear that the choice we are making is the choice that truly gives us power. It takes a lot of prayers for clarity and a willingness to let go of the confusion that hides from us what we’d rather not see. A strong mother never runs from the truth but stares it in the eye with abundant love. She knows there’s no power in running away. 

She knows the old habits make us sick. She knows choices must be grounded in understanding. She knows the force of our desperation causes our suffering. She knows that patience with ourselves, the patience that allows us to listen very closely and carefully, to rediscover ourselves, will ease some of that desperation that drives us away from our wisdom and hides from us those internal wounds that we most need to doctor. Some find this mother in their awareness, in awareness that refuses to get caught up in the hubbub swirling around us, that hubbub that is always stealing our true spiritual power, the hubbub that is nothing more than a stream of enchantments and distractions. 

This mother is being born every minute, every time we sit quietly and honestly in contemplation of our experience and in prayers for wisdom and clarity. In the force of the love of this mother, we gain the strength to allow and understand the truth. And that most important truth is that we alone are the ones that we need to make us feel safe. This mother in us knows how to make us feel safe even when the world is a storm of chaos, she calms our blood, she slows our heartbeat, she lets us sip the true power of creating a paradise of forgiveness and peace within. This healer, this teacher, this friend, this doctor, this great love is born in us when we say to the precious jewel of the universe, Wisdom, here I am, please come in. I have all the time in the world for you. 

It is strange to think of oneself as the mother of wisdom, but that is who we are when we sit quietly and face experience with honesty, love and acceptance. And that mother of wisdom, that bringer of peace, is clearly the one we have been waiting for. 

Happy Mother's Day