As I said in my Mother’s Day Post Part 1: Thank you Baby Songbird, I speak of Mother’s Day as a day to give thanks to the people who made it possible for you to be a Mother in the first place-your kids. In my case, my two daughters are the ones for whom I am thankful for on this Mother’s Day.
Your kids are the people who speak your unique spiritual language more fluently than anyone else on the planet. Notice the small nuances they’ve picked up from you that reinforce your personal bonds: their tone, pace and intensity of their voice sounds just like you. Notice how their gestures and quirks look just like yours. Notice their preferences and aversions, talents and flaws look a lot like yours. They are so loving to be such clear mirrors to our own strengths and weakness’ in how we treat ourselves.
My daughter Lindsay, is a wise sage from another place and time. From the moment of conception, as a preemie, until now she was a fighter. She fought for just the basics that we take for granted but were due her: breath, attention, protection and a voice. She has a voice today that she shares with me the wisdom of the sages from another time and place.
I will forever be grateful to my daughter, Lindsay, the wise sage, who gave me many of the most powerful lessons in my life. She did it in a gentle whisper that could have gone unnoticed had I not been paying attention. I could have missed her brilliant wisdom. This story reflects just one of her life changing wake up calls that she gave to me as a gift of life:
The day was my graduation day, or should I say her graduation day from college. It was the end of an era for both of us. I remember getting really close to her in a private moment with all kinds of activity swirling around us. I said, “Honey, our lives have been all about healing, advocacy and the overcoming of adversity. How will we now be with each other now that this common bond is no longer what defines and connects us?” In her whisper wisdom, she put her arms around me, looked me straight in the eye and said, “Mommy, all the healing, advocating, protecting, teaching and loving you have done for me has been very good practice for you. Now you know you can do all of those same things for yourself, but this time for real, for you.” We cried. She had handed the torch right back to me. We felt the loving bonding heart juice between us that was squeezing out of our hearts. I thank you my sweet daughter for letting me use you to learn about me.
And today, that same wise sage is pregnant with a little girl of her own soon to be birthed. And so the wheel turns, and life gives her the same Mother’s Day opportunity she gave me. Now her ‘practice’ begins. Thank you wise sage. Happy New Mother’s Day!