Strength - Herbcrafters Tarot
Today is my daughter, Emma’s birthday. October 8. Eight also begins with E. Today I drew the card 8 - Strength - Garlic from The Herbcrafter’s Tarot. E is a good letter for me. This day - long ago is when I became a mother. Some of you may have taken this wide ranging journey. It is filled with many places to discover yourself and perhaps lose yourself at times. The distance of years and time from my being born a mother day - are long in the past. However, it is still ever possible to be right back there in that moment when your life was one way - suddenly it is another way. On the anniversary of her being born and me becoming - I always find a soft reflection going on and a looking back. Where have we travelled together? What have we learned? Where will we go next? What sort of mother have I embodied? A long journey of life with another human being. I know I have learned much.
Mothering is a path and a choice that some of us take. Choosing not to take this path or having the choice made for you is a deep and meaningful pathway as well. Please know I support all decisions in the realm of mothering. I say mothering, as that is a part of who I am. I can only know what I have experienced first hand.
“I’m a worker, and I’m a mother, and all the other stuff is just semantics.”
It is true that I am a mother. It seems hard to believe that all the other stuff is just semantics - and it turns out this is true. As the years go by I develop and grow. Curiosity carries me forward and allows the moments of thinking and creative great fun. Mother is there with me always. Carrying one’s strength in this is necessary. Separation of identity requires this strength and constant fortitude. However, through it all - I am a mother. It is the thing that keeps me awake, asks me to research, and creates a flexibility to ride waves of emotion that might be sudden or unasked for. It also brings me wonderful joy and friendship. The complexity of a long and deep relationship with my daughter is a gift I treasure. I feel many deep and numerous blessings for which I am grateful.
On this day - I am ever grateful to be with my daughter in this lifetime as her mother. Happy Birthday to my Emma! May the stars follow you with blessed kindness. May the years always be good to you. May your heart be full of love. May you always have a book nearby! May the forest always welcome you…
Emma at Ocean House in Rhode Island
Never Far From A Book
Us - Sunken Garden Poetry Festival (what are we talking about?!)
Devotion by Patti Smith
A gift from my husband on the anniversary day of my becoming a mother.
Things are slow moving. There is a pencil stub in my pocket.
What is the task? To compose a work that communicates on several levels, as in a parable, devoid of the stain of cleverness.
What is the dream? To write something fine, that would be better than I am, and that would justify my trials and indiscretions. To offer proof, through a scramble of words, that God exists.
Why do I write? My finger, as a stylus, traces the question in the blank air. A familiar riddle posed since youth, withdrawing from play, comrades and the valley of love, girded with words, a beat outside.
Why do we write? A chorus erupts.
Because we simply cannot live.
~Excerpt from Devotion by Patti Smith
I am here to talk with you about the mothering journey if you find yourself exploring this map!