Tag: nurturing

Happy Mothering Day

“Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter” – Yoda

When it comes to nurturing – like taking care of young ones, elderly ones, the ill or the otherwise vulnerable – physical sex assignment takes a back seat.

I mean, yes, I know only female mammals have the ability to nurse young. Don’t get pedantic on me. I’m talking big-picture, lifetime, any stage of physical life kind of physical AND emotional nurturing.

The mothering I celebrate today is one luminous being to another, free from biological or social definitions.

Just like anyone can use a bottle to feed a baby, anyone can nurture any other human being.

The biological bond with a birth mother is unique and special and well worth celebrating. But I think it is also well worth celebrating universal acts of nurturing and kindness that can come from anyone of any body type anywhere at any time.

And it is also well worth directing some of that mothering kindness and compassion to those whose mothers are no longer with us physically and those whose mothers are no longer with them emotionally.

It is OK, even on this holiday, to protect yourself from harmful relationships, even when it involves biological family. It’s even better to connect with those who have given you support and kindness when you needed it the most.

Mothering yourself – nurturing your own mental health, inner peace, and emotional well being – deserves some thanks and TLC too.

Happy Mothering Day

Today’s Tarot: No Grinchy Grudge

Connect to the life inside a task, connect to the fun and joy of a thing and it becomes easy. Begrudging what you do for others adds a ton of weight. Whatever you may do for others, there is something somewhere for. Cook a meal and you get something to eat too. Arrange a game for the kids, and you get to play too…or a moment to take deep breath while they do. “Either way, what bliss!”

Today’s Tarot: A Well Stocked Cookie Jar

With all the pentacle cards that have been showing up lately, I’ve taken to re-reading old reference books to see if there is some obscure meaning, or some facet of the cards I’m missing. Call it due dilignce, although it is probably closer to trolling for inspiration.

Today was browsing the book that came with the deck in the video. It is my far and away favorite deck right now, the Witches Tarot. The book is by Ellen Dugan and the georgous artwork is by Mark Evans.

The keyword “homemaker” jumped out from the description for today’s Queen of Pentacles. My first knee jerk response was drudgery, housework, negative connotations of leaving the workforce that still get foisted on stay-at-home moms who are seen as somehow lesser, or giving in to old strictures of patriarchy.

Ok, let’s let that go, let the cultural programming wash a way for a second. Deep breath.

Now let’s connect the word homemaker to the more common, more resonant, overarching meaning of nurturing and self care that typically comes through with this card. Now lets connect that further to the pandmic that was such a huge wave of energy coming through the pentacle cards lately.

Rather than the HGTV Martha Stewert version of homemaking, think “nesting.”

Think comfortable. Think of making a soft cozy little nest of pillows and blankets and watching TV in bed or from your favorite seat. Think pillow forts and cookies and comfort foods. It is sourdough season.

There is the potential for good things to come out of this experience. Those out and working have found strengths they may not have known before. May they also discover a vast pool of support they have never had before as well. Delivery trucks, supply trucks, and grocery stores have my eternal gratitude to go right with the healthcare and first responders.

We’ve been given the chance to face up to…and befriend who we are right here and right now. What better way to make a friend than sharing a cookie or two? We’ve been handed the chance to rediscover childhood pleasure, and create new ones. We don’t need mass consumerism and a constant drive to heal, to grow, to progress or to succeed. To bake a loaf of bread, put on our jammies, to become OK with a being on earth…even on who likes the occasional sweet treat or second (or fourth) cup of coffee, or letting yourself sit and finish listening to that song, a stretch, a yawn … any of a million tiny sensual physical realm pleasures that are close at hand with minimal effort.

We can get back to obsessing over appearances and diets and progress and consuming and doing and achieving later. For now, stock the cookie jar and deeply, mindfully enjoy the simplest, smallest pleasures at hand. Little things mean a lot, even when you are the Queen.

May we always have well stocked cookie jars and appreciate the simple pleasures close at hand.