My usual MO for Mother’s Day is to rant about how wholly unsustainable and inhumane our culture is toward mothers (and all parents, and children, and ok ok, humans in general, but that is another rant for another time). That rant remains ever-valid - our disconnected over-productive over-working always-on isolated non-communal culture is, on the whole, not one I’d ever advise to someone wanting to create a sane society for parents/children/humans/animals/anything or anyone.
In years past, this rant largely came from my own enthusiastic over-participation in that exact dynamic, and the constancy of burnout that it bore in my being.
But this year, I stand in a different place—an immense privilege that I do not take for granted, but also one born of immense necessity after my house burned down. I’m in a place of truly nurturing the mothering impulse within me, for myself (my nervous system, my mind, my body, my heart)—and therefore for my children, my home (and the plants graciously donated by my community and my own loving mother), my community, and all beings (may it be so)!
I’m feeling into what it means to mother, as a verb. When I think of the essence of mothering, often it brings to mind a sense of loving, nurturing, spacious hosting, patience, compassion. We all have this within us, regardless of gender or progeny-status, and regardless of whether we were ever mothered in this way.
I think it is our ongoing inner rejecting of this natural Yin-impulse (Yinpulse? Yeah I just did that 😛) is the core driver for the prevailing inhumanity of modern society.
So this year, I encourage you, I invite you, I implore you—regardless of whether you are a mother or not—to cultivate that inner mothering quality: for yourself first and foremost. This can look like more patience and compassion with your emotions. It can look like cultivating awareness of a slower, deeper breath throughout the day. It can look like a little less social media and a little more appreciating the sky. It can look like a little less coffee and a little more Rasa 🙂
It can look like an infinite possibility of things, and like any mother, you intuitively know best what it is for you.
Rasa was, in fact, born of a need for me to mother myself and my nervous system. I had just become a mother to a human baby myself, and my system needed loving tenderness in my cup—so I could be more able to embody that for my babe. And lately, when I’ve been selecting which Rasas to drink each day—which maybe you’ve seen on our Instagram Stories that I’ve been on a kick of mixing 3 blends at once 😃 —I’m asking myself, “Which blends will help me mother myself best right now?”
And so again, whether or not you are a mother or would or could ever be one, I invite you to think of yourself as one—to yourself first.
Ask yourself right now, what are you mothering in your life? What are you creating and bringing into being? What are you compassionately tending in the garden of your life?
And bringing it back to ourselves—because everything truly starts here, in our own bodies, our own minds—after you read this email, please take 30-60 seconds, open a note on your phone or however you do, and write a quick list in response to the question: “If I was mothering (or nurturing, or whatever word works for you) myself more, what would that look like?” Aim for a list of at least 5 concrete, achievable behaviors that you can enact today and every day. Pin that note to the top of your list or put it on your refrigerator or however you do, and every day please do at least 2 of those things. For all of us.
