Who Loves You Baby!
You Love You, That’s Who!
We put together a Mom Luv Collection - 10% off. Get it while the getting is good and use the code from your newsletter at checkout. This sale ends on Mother's Day. And when ISN'T IT Mother's Day? Who made this a holiday anyway?!
So someone made Mother's Day a holiday. We made it a meditation. You can read through and we have a short meditation practice for the day to day walking around moments. We call it Moms R You R Mom. We know - totally sellable!
Holidays can remind us to celebrate and they can also remind us of things we’d rather forget. It depends. Add the overlay of neo-capitalism …well that’s a whole other level of irony and intrigue. Is it ironic that we end this post with a "Buy A Bolster" call to action? (We say NO but maybe :) )
No matter what individual circumstances are, there is something about a mother’s love. It is idealized in so many religious traditions while at the same time the boot of patriarchy of those very same traditions is placed on a mother’s back. Even with this twisted view of a mom giving endlessly and a culture or tradition not valuing it, a mom’s love stands out.
The examples are numerous. We like how Buddhism so clearly takes it and runs. It has been referenced as an ideal on how to live a life of compassion.
A mom’s love is idealized because it is real. The love a mother has for her child reveals the possibility of the love that is available for all. Even if you weren’t fortunate enough to have that idealized mother’s love. You have been cared for when you were unable to care for yourself. We know this because you made it this far and are reading, so someone cared for you.
Sometimes we diminish all the love and attention that has gone into us being here in this moment. We may think others have it better, or the wrong person gave the attention, or we are so wounded that we don’t feel like we are worthy of the care and love we received. Sometimes things have to shift for us to see.
We asked one of our intrepid Inner Space explorers to chime in about her shifting experience with mom's love and universal love. Here's what she had to say about it:
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When my mother had her stroke, I remember seeing her on the hospital bed, motionless and out of it, and I thought, “She is so beautiful! When did she get so beautiful?” I understand now I was overwhelmed with a love I had not recognized until that moment.
Life is like that sometimes. We don’t see it till we see it.
Five years later she passed away. At first, all I could think about was my own grief. Little by little, my field of grief opened up. I would see the moon and spontaneously think of my mom. I would get moist eyes on conference calls or in meetings, with the mention of someone’s mother passing. Once when talking to a stranger about losing her mom at the mall, we spontaneously hugged each other.
Life is like that sometimes. We don’t connect until we connect.
We shared the same birthday. Every year, we celebrated that day together. After she died, I just wasn’t feeling it. Years passed, and then one day I was walking our dog. Walking along, inter-species and intra-environs and all up in it, and I felt something inexplicable. It was in the sky and the ground and the air and the grass and the hound and the human. It was love. But it was a mother’s love somehow transmuted into … dare I say it … universal love.
Love is like that sometimes. We don’t feel it until we feel it.
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There you have it. And you know something, when it's universal, it goes every which way. It is not just you who was cared for, you are also caring for others, all the time, whether you know it or not.
We are reminded of the ancient saying that even if we divided this huge great big massive earth into the smallest of pieces, the number of pieces would not be as great as the number of times that each sentient being has been our mother. (Nagarjuna)
THE SHORT MEDITATION (aka Moms R You R Mom :)): Just try imagining for 5 minutes: That everyone you run into, honk your horn at, casually pass on the street, check out at the register, every single person has been your mother innumerable times …. And you have been everyone’s mother innumerable times. How does this change your experience?
Thank you to all the mother’s out there, who might be our best chance of experiencing love and connection. We are offering 10% off selected products through Mother's Day. All you children, buy your momma a bolster and an eye pillow. She’s done a lot for you. And if you think you don’t have a momma in your life (trust us, you do somewhere and somehow) then buy someone who has cared for you an Inner Space bolster. The giving is receiving and you can open and stay grounded and all those other sappy tropes might just be true.
Life is like that sometimes. We all know this love no matter our circumstances, deep down inside.
Note: Check out this in depth article "Mother's Love and Buddhism" by Karen Villaneuva.
Click here to get our collection. Use the code from your newsletter when you check out.