Reader Penny Fedje shares what Mother’s Day means to her.
Honoring Mothers and All Women
Penny Fedje, EEM-CP, Energy Medicine Practitioner
Energy W.A.V.E. (Energy for Wellness And Vitality Enhancement)
While in a crowded public place, have you ever seen the head of every woman present turn toward the sound of a crying infant or child as if it’s a homing beacon? “There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child — and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own.” (1)
Ancient and primitive societies revered mothers, and numerous cultures and societies around the world still have a specific day set aside to honor mothers. Scholars have found many ancient languages used the same word to mean “mother” and “home.” The ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have held annual festivals to celebrate the belief that women had divine power to give life.
In the U.S. some people say that, just like numerous other holidays, Mother’s Day has perhaps become a bit over-commercialized with a focus on buying cards, flowers, and candies. Not that those things aren’t welcomed, as we all know of instances when the best gifts to mothers have included pretty rocks, paper hearts, an interesting insect, or “made with love” bowls of SpaghettiOs.
Despite the commercialization, like many people in the U.S. this May, I will buy the most beautiful Mother’s Day card I can find to help me express my love and gratitude to my mom for bringing me into this world and giving me life.
Honoring mothers has been, and still is, an accepted practice in many areas of the world. Perhaps this year it’s also time to honor all women everywhere. “Living free from violence is a human right, yet millions of women and girls suffer disproportionately from violence both in peace and in war, at the hands of the state, in the home and community.” (2)
Where there is violence, mutilation, subjugation, inequality, intimidation, poverty, honor killings, or devaluation of the right of women to life, liberty and happiness—in what way can we stand together, as men and women, to honor the Divine Soul in women and in each of us?
I ask the question—not because I have the answer, but because I wonder: Can we truly honor mothers if we are not also honoring all women? This year it is my wish to speak up about human rights and to honor all women… non-mothers, mothers, and mothers-to-be… for embodying beautiful Soul sparks of God.
I’m going to express my love and thanks, not just to my mom, but to all women. In previous years I’ve sometimes donated money or items to local shelters or to national and international women’s organizations, but this year I will make time to sit quietly, feeling and gathering the energy of love from my heart’s energy field into my hands. Then with a soft blowing breath, I will send the love energy collected into my hands to all women around the world.
It’s not a complete answer perhaps, but it’s my acknowledgement of the belief that in the eyes of God we are all equally loved. In feeling, creating, and sending love, the energy of love is perhaps the strongest energy—and answer—of all.
You may choose a different answer—there is no right or wrong answer to taking a stand and, with love in your heart, honoring the Divine Soul in each of us.
Footnotes
(1) Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
(2) https://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/women-s-rights/violence-against-women