In the pea soup fog of unquestioned, taken-for-granted,
tranquilized obviousness in which we blindly stumble
around
the world,
our lives, and
people,
it's oh so very easy (too easy, in fact) to not be blown
away by (or to even miss entirely)
the miraclethe world,
our lives, and
people
actually are - especially
people.
Take one person for example, take any one person: first, there was
nothing ie first there was not any thing. And then ... there was
a human being.
Now seriously: if that's not
a miracle,
you've become too jaded, too world-weary for your own good. First,
nothing ... then
a human being?
Say whut?!
The vehicle for
this miracle,
the vehicle for the nothing becoming
a human being,
is for the most part, the mother - or just simply "mother" (not even
"the mother"). And while there have been some enthusiastic
claims about the nothing becoming
a human being
without a father, it's quite safe to claim that in every single
instance of
a human being
that has ever lived and and / or walked the face of
this Earth,
there was a mother. Mother was always there. Really.
Obliquely, we're talking about my mother, about
your mother, about each of our mothers. But in
point of fact, we're talking about mother, just ... mother. And as we
marvel at mother, the source, the reproducing power of
Life itself,
we honor each of our mothers, each of our sources, each of our
reproducers. What mother does, is
a miracle.
What our mother did in bearing us into life, is
a miracle.
And it's that and nothing less than that, which we recognize today.
On Mother's Day, today Sunday May 12, 2024 I distributed this
announcement to fifty nine family and close friends, all of whom are
mothers or who have mothers, and now with the announcement of this
webpage's posting to immortalize its sentiment, to yet another one
thousand and ninety two plus more:
It's the possibility of acknowledging
Life itself
as mother that's worth trying on for size here. It's not a matter of
respecting your mother (and it's that too). It's not a
matter of "honoring thy mother" (it's that too). There are
all those
happy memories and
feelings
you have about your mother (it's them too). But the real opportunity on
Mother's Day is to acknowledge mother as
Life itself,
and to true*
your relationship with mother, to that (or "it" or "her" if you will).
The fact of the matter is none of that would have been possible in the
erstwhile pea soup fog of unquestioned, taken-for-granted, tranquilized
obviousness in which we blindly stumbled around
the world,
our lives, and
people.
It only became possible (and somewhat obvious) after a searching,
no-holds-barred inquiry into the true nature of the role mother plays
in our lives. Try this on for size: mother didn't have you;
Life itself
had you; mother simply gave herself to /
surrendered to
the process (and not as an innocent bystander either: as a full
participant)
so that you could have life. There's no greater gift than that.
*
Merriam-Webster's dictionary
allows "true" as a transitive verb: to make level, square,
balanced, or concentric; bring or restore to a desired mechanical
accuracy or form.
