God Be With the Mother

Michael Leunig says,

 

God be with the mother. As she carried her child may she carry her soul. As her child was born, may she give birth and life and form to her own, higher truth. As she nourished and protected her child, may she nourish and protect her inner life and her independence. For her soul shall be her most painful birth, her most difficult child and the dearest sister to her other children. Amen.

 

It is good old comforting serendipity when you feel something strongly, and then you run across beautiful words written by someone else to describe what you needed to say or hear. It is like a welcome from the earth assuring you that everything thing is aligned beautifully just in case you hadn't noticed how amazing creation is. You will receive what you need. The earth is quite hospitable. I never feel right celebrating the bounty of the earth though, because my mind always turns to Sudan, Palestine, Iraq and places filled with suffering. I don't think evil was intentionally created, nor are certain people inherently evil. Fear, deprivation, exploited lands and an insatiable thirst for survival seem to make certain creatures of the earth less hospitable than others.

 

But the mother, the good mother earth, mothers of children, so giving, so hospitable, so warm and caring. No matter how abundant or scarce things are, mothers find a way to take a piece of themselves and nourish their young with it. But mothers lose energy when we give too much of ourselves and end up with half hearted generosity.  Often there is no time left to work on the soul, the inner life, the precious light within that keeps us burning strong. But this is true for most people leading busy lives (not just mothers) when we spend all of our time thinking about other things and other people. A few years ago, I used to wonder what the fascination with yoga was. Although I'm still not into yoga, it makes sense now. Development of the inner life, the soul, with no guilt or "shoulds" attached to it like many forms of religious prayer. Alone time with no goal of losing weight or creating something physically beautiful: a time for nothingness. A time to listen to the earth beating in your own heart. THIS is what I have come to realize I need, thereby justifying my desire to establish a girls hut on the other side of the dam. My girls are still young enough to be like little branches connected to the limb of a tree, mother being the limb. It seems strange but if I am away from the house, from visitors, from stuff, the girls can be with me and I can still nourish my inner life. It is easier alone, but more fun with them.

 

I have been searching for prayers to do with our girls, prayers with no trace of fear, guilt, redemption, or being saved. Prayers full of awe and wonder and beauty. I can't seem to come up with any on my own. At Ecofaith we sing and hear talk of God. But not so much at home. We noticed this last week when Genevieve asked if we were going to God's place, 45 minutes away in a park in Bellingen. Luckily Jacinta knew that God is everywhere and proceeded to sing about all the places God is for the next 10 minutes. My favorite was, "God is on the meat we eat." Matt and I both grew up with the traditional Original Sin version of Christianity, born and bred in guilt. Matt is quite happy with gardening being prayer and jumping in puddles being prayer.

 

But wordy me, I need some poetry, some ritual to help Genevieve see that God is not in a park 45 minutes away. Matt has MANY books of beautiful spiritual poetry and I dig through them often. We even have a book of prayers for children from different traditions around the world. But none seem right. Last week our friend Jane read a Leunig poem at the park where God is. AH hah! I had forgotten about Leunig. And voila, after the high and low search, I found a lovely little prayer we might try each night, right on the shelf.  

 

One of our favorite Leunig prayers,

 

"God help us to live slowly:

To move simply:

To walk softly:

To allow emptiness:

To let the heart create for us."