Mothering ourselves on Mother’s Day

May 12, 2013
Painting, women’s rest room, Nepenthe, Big Sur

 

I’ve lived in a world of not good enough mothers
imperfect
bad mothers
 
But the mother is a child too
she is a child
 
I will stop waiting for you to be the perfect mother
 
I will be patient with you.
I will be tender
I will be the mother I wanted you to be.
~Amy, Laura Dern’s character
in the HBO series, Enlightened
 ♥
This is an option open to us, you know.
We can, in fact, mother ourselves.
I mean, who had the perfect mother?
Very few of us.
We’d like to pretend that’s not true, but it is.
Life is imperfect,
but we can always find ways to accommodate its imperfections.
We can, in fact,
mother ourselves.
Even if our mothers are still living.
We can also mother our mothers,
and that’s got to be a revelation.
And we can mother the world.

It’s Mother’s Day…
go forth & mother.

16 comments on “Mothering ourselves on Mother’s Day
  1. I like the idea of mothering each other:))

  2. Beth says:

    Yep, mothers are people, too. And like Talya, I love the idea of mothering ourselves and each other.

  3. Jennifer Wilck says:

    Very powerful.

  4. I have learned this as my mother has gotten older. Mothering myself has become a valuable skill and I’m glad I’ve learned it.

  5. Helene Cohen Bludman says:

    Yes! We do need to mother ourselves. We tend to forget that.

  6. Carol, you are so right, your words so complement what I had to say today on the blog hop!
    Loved this “We can also mother our mothers,
    and that’s got to be a revelation.
    And we can mother the world.”

  7. I have been nurtured by my female friends all of my adult life.

  8. Lynne says:

    ‘…mother is a child too…” so true, and so easy to forget

    • admin says:

      We do. And now we’re the age some of our moms were when they needed mothering, themselves. Wish I’d realized it then.

  9. pia says:

    Loved the poem and the idea of mothering each other.

    I used to hate Mother’s Day–first because I didn’t have kids. Then after my father died my mother (who had always called it a Hallmark holiday) insisted we “celebrate” it. Then because I felt guilty I had to be dragged feet first to Mother’s Day events.

    • admin says:

      I don’t have kids, either. And when my mother died, for a long time the day kind of pinged for me because I had no one to buy a frilly card for. I’m good now. Now it’s just all the mommy blog posts that I totally can’t relate to most of the time.

  10. Thanks for the gentle invitation to be more caring of the self and of others. Love and light to you.

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