Lessons my mother tried to teach me

Mother's Day is often complicated.  Trying to manage my first mother's day without a mother has reenforced this idea.  This day is complicated.

To scratch the surface of Mother's Day is to recognize that mothering is messy.   Just ask anyone who calls themself a mother.

Mothers are born because of relationship.  In fact, they only exist because of relationship.  Mothers exist because two people are connected or linked - be that through birth, adption, fostering or choice.  

We cannot really understand mothers without understanding relationship.  Relationships are complex, delicate, ever changing and shifting.  It is only in relationship that we feel all the normal emotions of living--joy, pain, friendship, sorrow, pain, hope, fear, anger, disappointment, pride and love. 

So as I feel all these feelings today, celebrating motherhood, I give a nod to the efforts of my mother to teach me what she thought was most valuable.  The value of relationship.  She lived a complex and full life in relationship with others.  Her relationships weren't always perfect, but they were real and meaningful.  She brought her authentic self and wasn't afraid of the work, challenge, and pain of relationship.  I think that is because she also knew that in relationship we would feel the most love, joy and connection.  

This Mother's Day, I give thanks for the things my mother taught me about relationship.

My mother was deeply moved by these teachings from the Anishinaabe.  "The Teachings of the Seven Grandfathers, also known simply as either the Seven Teachings or Seven Grandfathers, is a set of teachings that demonstrate what it means to live a 'Good Life.'"

You can learn more about it here

Below are images that represent the Teachings of the Seven Grandfathers and Grandmothers.  A gift to my mother.

TEACHINGS OF THE SEVEN GRANDFATHERS AND GRANDMOTHERS

SHARE LOVE

SEEK WISDOM

BE BRAVE

BE HUMBLE

SPEAK TRUTH

SHOW RESPECT

BE HONEST