May 2008

Dear Friends,

May is here and June is around the corner and during these months we celebrate our mothers and fathers. I am reminded of, Amma, my spiritual teacher (also known as the mother of compassion), and of her example of motherhood. She works 365 days a year, year in and year out, caring for others. She rarely sleeps and eats very little. Along with hugging thousands of people daily she juggles running her ashram and the many humanitarian projects from building homes to giving the United States one million dollars for the Hurricane Katrina Fund. When encouraged to take a vacation, Amma said that her life is a vacation, meaning that she is relaxed all the time.

In the late 1970’s, well into the Women’s Liberation Movement, I was a young mother with small children. I can remember upon meeting a new acquaintance being asked, “So, what do you do?” Cheerfully I responded, “I’m a mother.” This elicited discomfort and a change of subject. I was confused. What did I say that seemed so unusual?

I have grown to understand my path as a woman, wife and mother to be a spiritual one. When I fully engage and pour my heart and love into caring for my family I feel no resistance. Cooking, cleaning and juggling work becomes a meditation. In fact it strengthens my practice of meditation.

It is woman’s nature to plant the seeds of love, compassion, patience, honesty, fearlessness, generosity, faith, worship and prayer into the deep consciousness of her children, thus adding beauty to the world. Everything is born of the feminine. Luther Standing Bear of the Lakota Nation said: “It is the mothers, not the warriors, who create a people and guide their destiny.”

Let us remember what we are given every day from our collective mother, the Earth, the greatest gift of all – life.

And, that we must protect this fiercely.

Blessings this spring,

Colette

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April 2008

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