I’m old enough to recall when you could get in trouble everywhere in your town by any female adult who felt motherly toward you. If someone caught you doing anything immoral, illegal, disrespectful, or even questionable, they were not deterred by the fact that they did not share your particular strand of DNA. Wrong was wrong, and if you were wrong, they felt a social obligation to step in and mother you occasionally. That was the downside.
The upside was that you also had a cadre of women who would love, support, and encourage you in areas where your own mother did not have a background for input. This is the aspect of having Other Mothers that allows young women to excel and spread their wings beyond their own heritage. When women who are not bound to you by relational duty look into your life and tell you that you are gifted, you tend to listen to and believe them primarily because they aren’t your mom.
You may be a woman who needs an Other Mother. You might be a woman with Other Mothering to give. Truth is, you’re probably both. I hope you will seek out the Other Mothers you need and give Other Mothering liberally to the girls coming up the path behind you.
—Anita Renfroe
I miss my mother.
ReplyDeleteShe was the single, most heartfelt reason that kept me ‘in the faith’. However, after her death my world view started to change in a more pivotal way. With regard to my mother’s passing it was as if I had lost a hub in one the most important wheels of my earthly, spiritual conveyance, whereby all of the spokes that radiated from that indispensable center started flying apart in a random chaos of religious quandary. As a result of this, as well as being an older ( old!) adult, I started ‘coming out of the closet’ (in a non-sexual orientation context) more than ever by taking a real hard look at the religion of my youth and the essence and value of its truth paradigms for me, as well as for my fellow man. But even while navigating these oft’ times dark waters, I really missed the guiding light of the beacon on shore who was none other than my mother.
To tell you the truth, there are many times when I'd much rather pray to a Heavenly Mother than a Heaven Father. In fact maybe there are times when I invoke my mother in a sort of quasi prayer, although heretical as that may appear to many Christians. Nevertheless, if Roman Catholics can pray to 'saint's' as intermediaries, my mother was certainly the most saintly person I ever had the privilege of knowing.
I miss you mom.