Today is Mother's Day traditionally celebrated as an opportunity for family to recognize and express gratitude for the works of mothers in raising the children. Originally, families honored mothers by attending church with them, underscoring the spiritual aspects of motherhood with a focus on selfless love and sacrifice at the center of the home. Eventually, the holiday became commercialized and embedded in secular culture. As our culture has evolved over the years, our construct of Mother has grown beyond ancient archetypes and the American vision of the early 20th Century mother. Still, some type of Mother's Day continues around the globe with various practices and dates. It retains a spiritual aura in cultures where the maternal aspects of God, or a feminine God, or a female companion to a masculine God is woven into the religion.
This year, it occurs to me that the 21st Century has entered a time of not just questioning rigid concepts of women and their roles and right in society (debated for centuries and surging in 19th century America to present day), but as some now demonstrate, gender identity itself can be deconstructed and abandoned. Does this leave us without mothers or is this the opportunity to stretch and grow beyond our ingrained ideas into a consciousness that is more fluid and adaptable. Over the centuries circumstances have required caring people of either gender and any age range to sometimes act as mother and sometimes as father; we shift roles as times demand. There are no clearcut forever answers in the flux of life; except no one and nothing is left out. Whatever your family background or identity, take time today to reflect on how you mother life around you, as life in turn, mothers you. (Susan Nettleton)
for poetic glimpses of mothering, follow the links below:
https://thevalueofsparrows.wordpress.com/.../poetry-that.../