My mother died last June, and her name was June. This is my first Mother’s Day Grief without her in the world. The picture you see (scroll down if her head is chopped off; my lack of technical prowess is showing) shows her in her prime doing what she did best: organizing several hundred Pixy Pin-Up children’s photographers and their schedules all over the United States, BEFORE there was such a thing as spread sheets, google, or online flight reservations. She had this great big board in her office with constantly changing slips of paper and schedules representing each photographer. The schedules all changed weekly, too. I always thought my mom was born in the wrong era. She would have made an incredible chief of operations and logistics. She majored in home economics, because that was really about the only option there was when she attended college. On this Mother’s Day, consider what your relationship is or was with your mother, and plan your day accordingly.
What is the point of a vacation?
The easy answer is to get away from work and your daily routine. Perhaps it is to relax and unwind from daily stresses that accumulate over time, so much so that we are not even aware of the pile-up. But I think that taking time away from your daily routine makes you a better person for others. It creates the ability to be more ‘there’, more present, for others when you tend to your own spiritual garden. In other words, vacations matter.
Every midwife knows
that not until a mother’s womb
softens from the pain of labor
will a way unfold
and the infant find that opening to be born.
Oh friend!
There is treasure in your heart,it is heavy with child.
Listen.
All the awakened ones,
like trusted midwives are saying,
‘welcome this pain.
It opens the dark passage of Grace.
–Rumi
As I reflect back on my wonderful visit with my mother this weekend, I am so grateful she is still here with me. Peace to all those who may be missing theirs. Take heart in her heritage–you.
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While I was standing on the corner of the busiest intersection in Wilmington protesting HB2, a recently passed law in NC which discriminates against the LGBTQ population and removes the right of local municipalities to set their own minimum wage and anti-discrimination ordinances, I began to start categorizing those that passed by in their cars. This is a common activity of our brains used to make meaning in our lives; we cannot help but do it.
PAGE RUTLEDGE, LCSW, CHt | Couples Counseling
Tel: 910-777-7243
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5006 Randall Parkway (close to UNCW)
Wilmington, NC 28403
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