Loading...

Meditation on Mother’s Day

Earthrise

She goes by so many names:
Mother Nature.
Mother Earth.
Mother Goddess.
Gaia.

She takes so many forms:
The dance of the seasons.
The ripples of a river.
The textures of a mountain range emblazoned by the morning sun.
The crash of a wave on sand.

She is very old yet laughs with the voice of a babe.

She dies continually yet is continually reborn.

She is
mother and daughter,
womb and tomb,
cradle and grave,
virgin and lover,
begetter and betrayer.
She is all of these things.
She is what She is.

And so when I wake on this day, I sense Her there to greet me.

She
stirs me,
embraces me,
warms me,
feeds me,
supports me,
protects me,
entertains me,
teaches me,
guides me,
cleanses me,
rocks me,
and tucks me in to sleep.

And so on this day, I give thanks to Her in all of Her forms.
I kiss her as my Mother and my Lover.
I learn from Her as my Teacher and my Guide.
I bow to Her, in all of Her awesome splendor, with piety and devotion.

On this day, I turn my face towards the light of the rising sun and sing:

“HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.”

On this day, I turn my face towards the light of the noonday sun and sing:

“HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.”

On this day, I turn my face towards the light of the setting sun and sing:

“HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.”

On this day, I turn my face towards the light of the midnight moon and sing:

“HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.”

On this day, I sing to all the mothers, all the daughters of this great Mother—my Mother, our Mother:

“HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.”

And having given to Mother my heart, I give her now this hymn:

Glitter on Gaia

As stars against their blackened backdrop shine
And peep through matter hiding dark and shy
Our eyes will twinkle when they catch a ray
Of sunlight riding space and whizzing by;
As rain upon the pavement late at night
In silver moonlight softly gleams and glows
Our eyes will twinkle with the fearful sting
Of yesterday’s returning horror shows.

We dance and sing and play upon the crust
Afloat atop a molten ocean’s waves
And, lost in hurly-burly busyness,
We stomp the grass without a second guess
Or place our trust in the enduring strength
Of ground forgotten in the need and greed
Propelling us to work and gain our bliss
As dog eats dog and laps the tears we bleed.

Another day, another round of pain
As scourges whip and crack in heavy air
Then strike the earth, dig in, and rip its skin
But never noticing the pulse that wanes
And stutters, tripping when the wounds are made:
The rumbles quaking all around have drowned
Those echoes, fading as the pulsing fades,
And faster, harder, deeper pump the blades.

Another day, another masterpiece
Of art is teased from cold and stubborn stone;
From visions swirling through a brain aflame
And taking shape in words to find some peace
When pen and paper touch, unite, and speak,
Or else in pictures made of brush and paint;
Of architecture taking careful form
In monuments we stand before and faint.

The burdens and the blessings passed through time,
Those legacies of all who came before,
Are omens shouting, lest they be ignored,
Then screaming louder if at first denied.
Although, perhaps, we shut our ears and eyes
Or hide the shadows with electric lights,
The stars have watched us on our blazing stage,
Exploding often over earthly frights.

This dot of blue and green and brown and white,
This speck of dust within a cosmic whirl
Is ours to laugh and love and live upon
Or kill and steal and lie and die upon.
The choices made with each and every breath
And human heartbeat from the birth of time
Have shaped, are shaping every place and clime
And joy and sorrow in the face of death.

But still, at dawn, our mother Gaia wakes
And sparkles, kissed again by father Sky;
She wears the naked beauty that she makes
And glitters till we flicker, fade, and die.

Image courtesy of NASA.

3 comments
  1. Steven Earl Salmony

    Perhaps change is in the offing as a “forced-choice”.

    Endless economic growth is the shibboleth of the rich and powerful in our time. But the days of reckless domination of the Earth and its environs may be numbered, it would appear, because the idolatry, the magical thinking, the wishes and the selfish intentions that have driven endlessly expanding large-scale corporate activity and insatiable wealth accumulation could be about to run their course. The plans of the economic powerbrokers and their bought-and-paid-for politicians for ‘manufacturing’ “bubbles” and big-business boom times could lead the family of humanity to be threatened by the inadvertent loss of life as we know it and the unintentional destruction of the Earth as a fit place for human habitation by our children and coming generations.

    Steven Earl Salmony
    AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
    established 2001

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *