Message for Mother’s Day

• May 4, 2011
• Ann Mortifee

Once again I am thinking of you all as the sun rises over the desert.  The morning is unusually chilly for this time of year. And so I am wrapped snugly in shawl and woollen slippers. There is a nest being built in the Mesquite tree close to where I am sitting and three turkey vultures are soaring effortlessly overhead.  All is very still and peaceful and right with the world.

I know that there are many places on earth where things are not peaceful. It is one of the great mysteries to me how some of us seem to be so blessed with bounty, while others of us must suffer so deeply. And so, here in this vast landscape, I pray that the inner and outer stillness I am feeling will somehow, by some strange alchemy, pour like a healing balm out into our collectively shared atmosphere.

I am remembering a moment with Gosololo, my nanny in South Africa.  She was a second mother to me. Her beauty and richness of soul resonates in me still.  Once every two months on her days off, Gosololo was able to return to her village to be with her own children. The rest of the time she lived with us.  She was doing what was required of her.  Yet, in spite of the loneliness she felt for her children, she never withheld her love from us.  She fed us on its warm and nourishing sustenance.

Once after she had just returned from a visit home, I came into the kitchen and found her staring out the window.  Quiet tears were rolling down her cheeks.  I had never seen Gosololo crying before.  I felt awkward and shy. I climbed onto her knee and with my child’s small arm, I clumsily tried to comfort her.  I patted her back and stroked her hair, as she would have me.  The sadness in her dark eyes gave way to tenderness. Slowly they changed to laughter, and then returned again to tears.  Back and forth her feelings flowed until she pulled me close to her heart and half crying, half laughing, she whispered ever so softly.

“Oh Anna, the reason I am grown so fat is so I can hold all these feeling, all in the same body, all at the same time.”

This is the great mystery of Mother.  It is the power of unconditional love.  No matter the circumstance, no matter what is right or wrong, love does what needs to be done. Love feels what needs to be felt. And whatever it takes, love accepts and then it loves some more.

And so, on this Mothers Day, I wish you love.

In the great Mystery,

Ann