It is Spring { Eastertide for Christians} and around us healing is taking place. People are getting vaccinated, and the Center For Disease Control has relaxed mandates for people who, like me, are fully vaccinated. People I know who were previously ' on the fence' regarding vaccination are making the wise, caring-person choices to roll up their sleeves.
Some, including Brian and me, are making plans to travel within the continental United States.
After a long, sad, lonely "Lentiest Lent"-- Easter is here.
And the people say : ALLELUIA. ALLELUIA ALLELUIA!
Healing is starting to occur. Granted, we still need to be careful engaging with others on whom we are not sure of their vaccination status.
For me, a lot of personal healing occurred last weekend . I was blessed to be among the parish women who had an opportunity to pray, play, laugh, cry and BE with several women I love & whose FACES I'd not seen in over 14 months.
There is room for healing during a retreat, and I came back home feeling as if a hundred-pound weight were lifted from my shoulders. For the first time in over 20 years, I am not dreading Mothers' Day.
I'll say that again : I am NOT DREADING Mothers' Day.
I spent a lot of quiet time at the retreat meditating on these words from St Julian of Norwich { Who knows a bit about Pandemic Life}
Dame Julian says: " God feels great delight in being our Mother. "
For me, knowing that humankind is made in the Image of a God who is Mother and Father made me look at my own life with a fresh perspective.
I never had children. Therefore, I'll never know the joys of grandparenthood. But, as Julian explained, and I witnessed in the lives of the women on the retreat with me: there are so many ways to be that authentic Mother. .
According to Julian, an " authentic Mother" has these qualities--- regardless of child-rearing status.
~ Compassion. Compassion leads to love in action. An authentic Mother puts compassion into loving action. She seeks to ease the suffering of others.
~ Service. God the Mother tends to the needs of her world. So shall we. Service can be towards anything in this world, from tending to sick people to lovingly caring for plants in a garden. Service can also include serving the most needy in society.
~Protection. I think of a she-bear: gentle until something { or someone} threatens her cubs.
As I spent some quality " quiet time" with God during the retreat, I've realized that I-- a woman who is not what society considers ' a mother' in fact DOES a lot of authentic motherhood'.
Realizing my own motherhood is a big step for my healing. I cannot change society's insisting on a narrow definition that restricts motherhood to child-rearing , but I can change how I see myself. I can recognize the compassion, service & protective qualities in others.
Mother God is near us and shows Herself in many ways. I am grateful that She showed me ways to tap into my own Divine Feminine and realize the broad definition of " Mother".
Amen
Sarah Elizabeth McCarren
30 April 2021
You are a beautiful living example of one who is truly a conduit for Divine Mother Love. Your words, and the words of Julian of Norwich which you quote will surely encourage other women, and men also, to recognize within themselves those qualities which are mothering as well as those which might by convention be considered fathering. Mother God lives and moves in and throughout your being, and the world in which you walk is blessed by you and by Her through you! Thank you for expressing your own personal experience so beautifully, clearly and joyfully, Sarah.
ReplyDelete