Mothers day – celebrating the mother in us all

May 2, 2018

Painting by Meinrad Craighead

To some, Mother’s day is just another day concocted by the greeting card and floral companies, a cultural holiday dominated by consumer pressures. For those whose mothers have died or are distant, and for those who have never been mothers, the day might touch deep sensitivities.

I think it’s important to approach Mother’s Day with a broad view and to not define the word mother too narrowly. There are many mothers in all our lives and many kinds of mothering experiences.

I have gathered together some spiritual practices that you can use on this special Mother’s day to honour our many mothers, including our mother-self, that part of us who nurtures and cares deeply for our wellbeing.

Create a gratitude gift

In a song titled “Mother’s Eyes,” Willie Nelson sings: “God’s gift sent from above / A real unselfish love, / I find in my mother’s eyes.” Create a gift for your mother to express your gratitude for her unconditional love. Remember to also offer thanks for this unsurpassable gift to you.

Contemplate Images of God the Mother

Meinrad Craighead has painted /uploads/features/images of motherhood in its many forms. She explains: “The creative spirit I know within me has the face and the force of a woman. She is my Mother, my Mothergod, my Generatrix, the divine immanence I experience signified in all of creation.” Forty paintings are reproduced in The Mother’s Songs: Images of God the Mother along with brief meditations by the artist on each of them. You can also see her work and purchase prints at her website: www.meinradcraighead.com. Sit with these paintings and experience the creative spirit and force of the Mother.

Share stories

“The mother’s heart,” Henry Ward Beecher once noted, “is the child’s schoolroom.” Share with someone near and dear to you a few of the important spiritual lessons from your heart that you have passed on to your children — or that you would want to pass on to your children.

Mother Movies
Watch a movie, escape into the screen and think about the challenges and rewards of motherhood. Here are a few suggestions: The Dollmaker, Places in the Heart, Little Women, Postcards from the Edge, Stepmom, Anywhere But Here.

Holy Mother Earth

Many traditional cultures identify with the earth as the Mother who gave us birth and still takes care of us. A wonderful old saying goes:

“Holy Mother Earth, the trees, and all nature are witnesses to your thoughts and deeds.”

Find a ritual way to honour Mother Earth and the bounties she supplies. Follow up with a concrete act to support the Earth, such as helping to clean up or protect an area near you.

Honour All Your Mothers

“If you consider as kind the mother who carried you in her womb, how can you dislike any being? For in countless past lifetimes all have been your mother,” wrote the Seventh Dalai Lama in Meditations to Transform the Mind. As you walk around on Mother’s Day, try to imagine that all of the people you meet have at some point been your mother. Send them love and peace and happiness.

Address the Deity as Mother

Sri Ramakrishna, the great Hindu spiritual sage, wrote: “Why does the God-lover find such ecstatic delight in addressing the Deity as Mother? Because the child is more free with the mother than with anybody else, and consequently she is dearer to it than anybody else.” Try using one or more of the following honorific titles:

Mother of the World,
Mother-God,
Goddess,
Sophia,
Shekinah,
Queen of Heaven,
Tender Nursing Mother,
Gentle One,
Wise Old Crone.

Gather other names and /uploads/features/images of the Divine Feminine that speak to you. Incorporate some of them into your devotions over he next few weeks or months as an ongoing Mother’s Day practice.

Holy Mother

In India, women who are profoundly compassionate, nurturing, and wise are publicly acknowledged by the title “Holy Mother.” Recall a woman you know or have known who qualifies to be addressed as “Holy Mother.” Write a description of what you admire about her in your journal. Tristine Rainer in The New Diary notes: “By writing diary portraits of people who intrigue you, you enter their qualities in your book, in your space, and begin the process of recognizing and taking possession of those qualities.”

Mothering

The most common word association with mothering is nurturing — and this practice is not limited by gender or any other characteristic. All of us, male and female, single or married, old or young, have the potential to give birth and raise something in the world. In a prayer written for Mother’s Day, Pamela Spence Bakker used the following images. Choose those you most identify with and reflect in your journal or in conversation about which you identify with.

Some of us give birth to: