She holds me in her arms when I’m sad.
She reminds me of spaciousness when the world feels small.
She returns me to my place of belonging when old rejection wounds are triggered.
She provides shade in summer heat.
She reminds me of the beauty of the world when things look dim.
She feeds me when I’m hungry.
She wafts through the window at night and gives me a gentle bedtime kiss.
She embraces me with gorgeous steadfastness every morning.
She is the apple tree who lives in the center of our yard, and she is one my truest mothers.
True Mothers are Everywhere
I have many mothers; we all do. I have imaginal mothers and nature mothers. I have mothers who have passed on and mothers from my lineage who I’ve never met. No matter how it might feel at times, nobody is motherless.
In order to be able to receive these mothers, we must walk through the three stages of healing from the mother wound (I’ll be sharing more about these stages in my free webinar on Thursday; I’ll be sending signup information in the next couple of days).
The stages aren’t linear (healing never is), but when we’ve done enough of our inner work that allows us to release the pain and expectations around the mother who birthed us, we can open to the deliciousness of the mothers who live and breathe all around us.
The woman who birthed me
is not my true mother,
just as I am not the true mother of
the sons I birthed.
The true mother is the one
who rocks us in her salty waters,
who whispers to us in the twilight hour when
she spreads her golden light across the
fields like a picnic blanket and
invites us to sit down.
Every time we notice an insect climbing up a stalk of grass;
Every time we cry out to the moon and
allow her to catch our tears;
Every time we remember to pay homage at the
temple of our bodies,
we are being held by a mother who
knows us,
see us,
loves us.
How easy it is to forget that
we are not alone,
and to believe that
the one who birthed us
should heal our pain.
It is so much bigger than we imagine.
It is as a big as the stars and the galaxies –
this love from the mother who
waits for us to call to her and
ask to lie down in her arms.
A Roadmap for Healing the Mother Wound
Again, we cannot jump to the true mothers without grieving the pain and disappointment that we carry about the woman who raised us. That would be bypassing, as healing at the root always depends on grieving. And we cannot grieve what we’re too afraid to name.
So: We name. We grieve. We grow our support network of other mothers. These are the tasks that we gently walk through together in Healing the Mother Wound: A 40-day course for daughters. I only offer this course once a year (it’s only available live), and the next round will start on May 4th, 2024. I very much look forward to seeing you there.
Here are the three call times. All calls are recorded:
