I have had many mothers.

My birth mother who passed away too young when I was six. My grandmother who took care of me upon her daughter’s death. My adoptive mother, who tried her best and with whom I shared a turbulent love/anger relationship. My daughters have mothered me on many occasions. The Earth has cradled me within her sacred bosom. Friends have lent a motherly ear and embrace.

Where would I be without all that love?

If there is anything on this earth that is sacred, it is motherhood.

No one can explain the magic that occurs when a woman knits together an unseen spirit from the Other Side with the perfection of a human body inside her womb.

What alchemy occurs when a mother hears her crying infant and she lets down her milk! What mystery it is that her milk changes to suit the needs of her child with every feeding?

How are we to explain that when our child is born, we can pick them out by their scent in a roomful of babies?

How are we not to be broken by the unwavering, unconditional trust of the toddler who lifts his eyes and small, trembling hand towards his mother, knowing that she will understand his tears?

What can take hold of a woman’s heart more strongly than the need to protect her child from all harm? Would she not walk through fire and risk death to shield her flesh and blood from danger?

Women are the human embodiment of our Mother Earth. Living and dying with every breath that their children take, mothers give their entire body over to the preservation of humankind.

Sacred goddesses, mothers are no longer to hide the magic of pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding nor are we to be ashamed of the role we take as caregivers to the planets greatest gift and resource… our children.

Breathe deep the beauty of your mystery and power, women. No matter how you came about to motherhood, whether through pregnancy, adoption, fostering, or fate, you are the lifeline of everything that is. Thank you.

“Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.” ~ Robert Browning

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.” ~ George Washington

“The best place to cry is on a mother’s arms.” ~ Jodi Picoult

“To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.” ~ Maya Angelou

“My mother had a slender, small body, but a large heart—a heart so large that everybody’s joys found welcome in it, and hospitable accommodation.” ~ Mark Twain

“You were my home, Mother. I had no home but you.” ~  Janet Fitch, White Oleander

“My mother was the one constant in my life. When I think about my mom raising me alone when she was 20, and working and paying the bills, and, you know, trying to pursue your own dreams, I think is a feat that is unmatched.” ~ Barack Obama

“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.” ~ Sophia Loren

“Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.” ~ Stevie Wonder

“Because I feel that, in the Heavens above / The angels, whispering to one another, / Can find, among their burning terms of love / None so devotional as that of ‘Mother’” ~ Edgar Allen Poe

“A good mother loves fiercely but ultimately brings up her children to thrive without her. They must be the most important thing in her life, but if she is the most important thing in theirs, she has failed.” ~ Erin Kelly, The Burning Air

“My mother … had a very deep inner spirituality that allowed her to rebuild her life. It’s extraordinary that she had such a strong sense of self and such a commitment to the future and such a strong creative sense that she could build new worlds for herself and for us out of the total devastation in her life.” ~ Caroline Kennedy

“It is the custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtinesses and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind; and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.” ~  J. M. Barrie, The Adventures of Peter Pan

“Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

“The clocks were striking midnight and the rooms were very still as a figure glided quietly from bed to bed, smoothing a coverlid here, settling a pillow there, and pausing to look long and tenderly at each unconscious face, to kiss each with lips that mutely blessed, and to pray the fervent prayers which only mothers utter.” ~ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“When a child is born the mother also is born again.” ~ Gilbert Parker, Parables of a Province

The photographs and paintings used in this post are ones that for me evoke the incredible bond between mother and child.

We don’t all of us have children… some of us have lost our mothers, and yet, we all have the common link of once having been someone’s baby. As such, we are connected by the miracle of pregnancy and birth, and the love that carried us within the salty waters of the womb.

If you need some Mother love, I hope you can connect to it by feeling the embrace of Mother Earth. I like to go to the ocean, or any body of water—even my bathtub—when I need to crawl back into the womb for comfort and reassurance.

I wish goddess love for all of us on this day and every day.

Relephant Read:

4 Practical ways for Women to Recover from Everyday Life Exhaustion.

Author: Monika Carless

Editor: Catherine Monkman

Images: Original artwork, used with permission, Gaia Orion, Photographs, with permission, courtesy of Jade Beall Photography, Wikimedia Commons