For those of you who have had a mother… no, wait… let’s try this again. For everybody on the freakin’ planet, Happy Mother’s Day. We all have one thing in common, we originated from a mother. Sure, a father is involved in a technical, assisted, support kind of role. Couldn’t happen without… whatever. Mom still rules. Dad might get the whole process started but its mom who carries the project through. And that’s why we look to Mother’s Day as the major holiday celebrating a family member (a limited category for sure… Dad got his day just to be sure we weren’t caught napping on the whole “family picture” thing).
My Mother passed away about two years ago so I am officially in the “Remembering Mother on Mother’s Day” category. It still serves this purpose very well. No card to send or phone call to make. But a time to remember, and if family emails are any indication, still a large part of the family’s survivor conversation.
Our conversation today has been about memories and dreams of our Mother. We all know in our bones how she connected us to life on this earth. How she gave us a sense of being; physically, emotionally, ethically. How she lived her life as she hoped her children would, by offering her services and her love to all who called on her. By teaching the things she held dear; her faith and her own insightful thoughts on life.
My brother recounted a dream about her which had him thinking of Mother’s Day with her and sharing tears together. It reminded me of my own dreams about Mom and how we use dreams to connect emotionally to her. The world of dreams offers what we deeply long to have in waking life, a magical interplay of all possibilities. My dreams of Mom are emotional, powerful , instructive…. and too infrequent because they hint at coming regularly. And these dreams are our portal.
Its no wonder the ancient Chinese developed ancestor worship since the loss of loved ones creates this whole absence/presence kind of thing. And that is exactly how God appears; absent/present. Easy to think they are in the same place now.