I have so much to say about Mother’s Day. Sometimes that day is such a swirl of gratitude and feelings that I can hardly situate my thoughts. So I want to debrief here for a couple of days. Because there’s something so productive to help sort out my feelings as I write them. Thank you, dear blog readers, for coming along for the ride. As for today, I want to talk about how Mother Earth is a model for mothering.
Because maybe someone needs to hear it. And also because I was one of the speakers at church for Mothers Day yesterday. And I felt compelled to talk about Mother Earth.
It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time.
As a side-note, do you know who was in charge of asking me to speak on Mother’s Day? Yep, this guy below:
But that smile on his face as I got up to speak was like a little pay-off. Love him.
I got to speak with this awesome line-up of Young Women:
We all look so excited, right? Ha! But they gave the best talks about their mothers and their Christ-like attributes.
Here’s my talk with a few pictures and links added in.
Mother Earth as a Model for Mothering
A few months ago my three sisters and I got a chance to visit Sedona. In our family we grew up kind of addicted to nature. We are also maximizers.
So, in true Eyre family fashion, my sisters and I hiked every nook and cranny we could squish into our time there and noticed every beautiful rock crevasse, every interesting plant, the way the bark formed intricate patterns of protection for the trees, how the red rock formations looked juxtaposed against the sky.
And we felt alive!
Not only are we a little bit addicted to nature, but we’re also are a little nerdy with how much we love yoga and meditation, so my sister Saydi pulled up an “Earthing Meditation” and the four of us sat cross-legged on a small expanse of red rock overlooking a stunning valley and let the meditation’s soothing words about the nurturing of the earth wash over us.
An Earthing Meditation
Here are some of those words as the meditation got us breathing deep into the earth:
“As you continue to breathe deeply, …imagine you are sending out roots into the earth. If you are not touching the earth directly, be aware that the earth’s energy field reaches you anyway.
“She is big. And Earth energy is strong…we are inside Her magnetic field, and she pulls us to her. Centered.”
“Feel your roots extending down, any toxins draining away from you, and the goodness of nourishment as it enters you from the earth.”
As I sat there I was reminded that yes, it is a wonderful thing to feel cradled in the Earth.
I mean, just look at this picture of Lucy surrounded by Mother Earth and you know she’s feeling it: that magnetic field.
Mother Earth who settles in with the tide and let’s Herself fade away and spring to life again. Mother Earth who sends out energy in the form of oxygen from her green tendrils, and takes our toxins to transform them back into life through Her soil.
As I sat there pondering Mother Earth nurturing, I couldn’t help thinking about the nurturing of motherhood as well.
So many Similarities with Mother Earth and Mothering
As I sat there pondering Mother Earth nurturing, I couldn’t help thinking about the nurturing of human mothering as well.
Because they work so similarly.
The power of mothering, even if we’re not in direct contact with it, reaches us anyway.
Because it is big. And it is strong.
It too creates a magnetic field around us, pulling us in.
Seasons of Motherhood
When Dave and I were with our kids recently, he threw out a question. If you could go back in time to any period of life, what would it be?
My answer was easy. I’d go back to when all our kids were home. When I was wrangling my five young children in different carpools and sports, reading books together at night, every one of them around the family dinner table.
I loved those years so much.
But 10 years from now I know I’ll wish I could come back here too. The time when Lucy is graduating, and my big kids are off on new adventures and calling me about their dating crushes, job interviews, and my two grandbabies popping up regularly on FaceTime.
It is such a special (and also harrowing!) thing to be a mother in whatever stage we’re in.
Mothering has so much depth to more than our own children.
But mothering is so much more than the incredibly beautiful act of giving birth. It’s more than making job charts, beaming when our kids make the golden scholar list, and even nurturing them into those adult years. Just like mother Earth is so much more than a single beautiful spring blossom.
There is so much churning at work going on under the soil.
The act of mothering is everywhere.
It serves, like Mother Earth, to let us drain our worries and toxins into it’s roots and transform them back into goodness through it’s regenerating soil. To send out oxygen through our own symbolic green tendrils of unconditional love. To let ourselves fade in different seasons, and spring to life in others.
There is so much mothering going on in the world!
I notice the it in Lucy’s vision teacher at school who I mentioned has created a magnetic field around us. She has mothered and nurtured my daughter in a way her own mother cannot. She helped drain my worry toxins this this week and helped give me oxygen in the form of hope.
I see it in the primary leaders who just wrangled all those primary kids to sing that beautiful song.
In our ward Young Women president, gathering the young women for camp fund raisers and reminding them that they can do anything with God.
I see it in our Relief Society president who teaches us that when we minister, we are figuratively the hands of Jesus.
Of course, there is so much beautiful mothering in my own mother. The one who has not only raised nine children but “sees” everyone around her, is the best listener and lifts and loves like no one I’ve ever known.
And the work of mothering is still shining through from my grandma who long gone. But who is still teaching my kids they can do the “Impossible” because of one line she wrote in her journal years ago.
I was mothered by my friend who forgave me when I unintentionally did something that made her so sad.
I see it in a stranger saying, “I like your shoes.” Or “go ahead—you first.”
Yes, mothering is so all-encompassing.
May we look to Mother Earth when we struggle with Mothering.
So next time we’re feeling down on our mothering, may we look at the Earth. May we be grateful for a God of second chances and new beginnings.
May we remember there are seasons.
Seasons when we feel alive and on top of things.
And also seasons where we are struggling under heavy burdens.
At times it may not be the most glamorous, but in mothering and nurturing others, we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves.
There is no doubt that mothering is hard. We sometimes measure ourselves by how our children are doing. We may be yearning for children of our own. We may feel deflated that we are doing it all wrong.
But I hope we can remember that we are, as our young women theme in our church says, “beloved daughter(s) of heavenly parents, with a divine nature and eternal destiny.”
Even when it’s dark and we may not see the way out. Even when we are tired and we can’t keep our eyes open. Even when things seem lost. We all have a divine light within us.
And even though sometimes it may not feel like it, our children as well as others we reach out to mother, are carrying forth that light.
May we remember that even after the best we can do, God has this: our Heavenly Parents who created Mother Earth and also mothering. Our children (and our friends and peers) were Theirs before they were ours.
Psalm 139:13
“For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
(New International Version)
How grateful I am for this job of mothering.
The job for which all others exist.
May we all feel more fully the love of God as we go about working to replicate the life-giving oxygen and beauty and regeneration of Mother Earth. May we look up long enough to recognize the stunning vistas as well as the miraculous tiny blooms along the way.
