MOTHER ANGEL WARRIOR SPY…
In honour of all mums this mothers day…
A mothers first real true loves are her children. From the moment they are born she experiences the most profound paradox she has ever or will ever experience. Because the moment she gains the most precious thing in her life is also the moment she stands to lose the most precious thing in her life. As she holds her precious cargo in her arms for the first time she is hit by a force of atomic proportions the uncompromising reality of the need to protect and nurture this life until old enough to do those things for him/herself. And it’s this very thing that causes her to blossom into many things, some immediate, and some developing with her as her children grow and their needs evolve.
She becomes WARRIOR / SERVANT / GODDESS / MARTYR self-sacrificing with great skill and strength, protecting her young with fierce purpose, serving and fighting for the higher cause of family and home.
She becomes HEALER / RESCUER / ANGEL nurturing and soothing her babes with her touch, her song, her kiss.
She becomes VISIONARY / ENGINEER sensing the spirit and potential in the new life in her hands and creating the right atmosphere to allow growth and development in the necessary ways.
She becomes STORYTELLER / ARTIST / TEACHER / MENTOR guiding her children through the telling of the good stories about herself, and how she sees her little muses through her loving eyes.
She is also STUDENT (just like any great teacher) learning and growing from the challenges brought to her by her own mini mentors.
She becomes ALCHEMIST / MAGICIAN transforming her home into a cocoon of calmness, softness, nurturing. Transforming ingredients into nourishment for the whole family, at times appearing to bend time itself in order to transport her young charges wherever it is they need to be.
She becomes MEDIATOR / ADVOCATE with a gift for negotiating fairness and strategy and respect for both sides of an argument, inspiring compassion into action.
She becomes SPY with the senses and hearing of a stealth ninja, able to sense her children’s emotions from the next suburb, the sounds of their quiet murmurs rousing her from her deepest sleep…
It was His Holiness The Dalai Lama who proclaimed “The world will be saved by the western woman”. As soon as I heard this with my mother hearing it made so much sense to me. I grabbed this paragraph from a page I found when Googling the statement:
“The Dalai Lama, like his great friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu, does not mince words when it comes to women. He has said on numerous occasions that he inherited his prodigious compassion from his mother. He believes that women, with their nurturing instinct, are naturally more compassionate. He wants to see more female ministers of defence, and is delighted that Spain has one. If wars are a fact of life, then it would be better if women were in charge, according to him, since they are more likely to empathize with those who suffer during conflicts.”
(Here’s the link if you want to read more: http://dalailamacenter.org/blog-post/western-women-can-come-rescue-world)
I think The Dalai Lama probably meant all women in this sense, and not exclusively western women, but western women are in a strong position with the comforts and abundance that surround us unlike our eastern counterparts. With basic survival less of a daily struggle we are freer and therefore more able to engage in what comes naturally to us. Nurturance, guidance & compassion. These are of course traits of women in general, as are all the traits brought out by becoming a mother, it just takes the arrival of children to expose & enlarge them.
Becoming a mum has taught me more than any other adventure or relationship I have ever experienced. My children have inspired me to get over so many things about myself and the world and get on with living. It has also caused me to have even more respect for my own mother for everything she is too. I am grateful every day for the realisation I had a few years ago when I was having a hard day and reached that surrendered point which has so often in my life brought my greatest epiphanies. That realisation was this… “This is it. This is your life as a mother with these amazing little people. There are no do overs. No second chances. And life can end with the blink of an eye. So grab them as tight as you can and make the most of it in every way. See them and honour them for exactly who they are. See yourself and honour yourself for exactly who you are. Discover your deepest soul and bare it to them with no masks. They are yours but they are also not yours. They are their own person, with their own karma and their own journeys to walk. They have their own inner being, their own wisdom and they deserve your respect and benefit of the doubt at all times. Through them you have discovered the true meaning of unconditional love, never compromise it.”
Original drawing by Fiona O’Brien
