This was recommended and actually sent to me by Sherry. She's the most well-read person I know on the latest techniques and literature for well-being, both physical and mental. I've long been a fan of Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now, where he teaches you to turn off that negative tape that keeps running in your head and live in this very moment. Momfullness, plays that same theme, only with relation to how we mother our children, our selves, our oh so important friends, and our community.
I rarely take the time to type out segments of books, but the final pages of Momfulness are too good not to share.
As my children have grown and have begun to leave home, I've come to believe that the Angels' Promise (if you fall asleep before finishing our prayers, the angels will finish them for you) holds true for mothers as well. Our part is to begin the work with our children. In the end, that's all we can do. Then we must let go, say a prayer, and trust the universe - and all the angels- to hold them.
Mothering is a vocation that stretches us and that helps us find that which is most wise and loving and generous within us. Day by day, we deepen our practice of Momfulness by being more preset, attentive , compassionate, embodied, in touch with the sacred, and committed to community. As we open to the immense and maternal love at the heart of the universe, we discover that all of life becomes a meditation that transforms us, our families, and our world.
Let us keep reminding each other to breathe, to smile, to treat ourselves and one another with kindness. Let us hold each other when we need support, and let us challenge and remind each other of what is truly important. Let us take care of ourselves so that we don't hand down our unfinished business to the next generation Let us laugh together, and never lose our joy.
And let us take care of the children - our children, all the children. Let us mobilize our fierce and passionate mother energy on behalf of all beings on this little blue-green planet we call Mother Earth.
In closing, I offer this blessing:
May we be fully present, here and now, aware of the gift of each moment.
May we pay attention with kindness to what is happening within us and within our children.
May our hearts open wide with compassion for ourselves, our children and our world.
May we live fully in our bodies as we bless our families each day.
May we open to the great love and grace that holds us all.
May we care for each other and for the earth as we draw wide the circle of our family.
May we all find peace.
May we all be well.
