As I’ve traversed my journey through this human life, I’ve often mused that the relationship between mother and daughter is truly the richest and most complex there is. This knowing became vivified after I gave birth to my own daughter. No matter WHAT your relationship with your mother is, or is not, the fact remains– you grew inside her body. She gave you her most precious nutrients and energy, forming your beautiful body, and then she endured the most intense, excruciating moments of her life to push you out of her body into this world. There is something implicit in this miraculous play of creation that forges a life-long bond; a labyrinth of revelation of Self. I can testify that my own slowly unfurling journey through this essential relationship has been full of heartbreak, triumph and enormous love.
And like a spiraling fractal, blossoming through infinite space, or a delicate fern frond, uncoiling into tender new expanses of its being, I became a mother to my beloved daughter, Maya. I will testify, that it’s absolutely true… that becoming a mother extends great healing, backwards, into one’s relationship with their own mother. It’s as if an entire wall in my heart suddenly became a window, and the light of compassion and pure understanding streamed into my being. All those little misgivings I held toward my mother, for the ways she was, and the ways she wasn’t, melted like a snowy mirage on a desert at dawn. Through motherhood, day by day, I began to realize all that she sacrificed for me. The generous beauty of her giving heart came into crisp, lucid focus, while my naive misgivings crumbled like parched clay. Blessed BE.
Recently, as a gift to my mama for her birthday, I decided to take some shots of her. Who knows, maybe it was more a gift for me. She is 76 years “young”, which blows my mind, because she is still just as gorgeous as ever, if not more so! I decided to jump in a few shots myself take some photos of the three of us: Maya, myself and my mom. WOW. It seemed like such a frivolous act… but the results were/are profound.
Lineage. When laid out before my eyes, I was able to see the enchanting miracle of our bloodline. I could see the unifying spark that was passed like an olympic torch, between my mother, myself and my daughter. This whispering, essential sameness… that for the sheer joy of the play, continued to evolve, become, explore its own infinite dimensions through each of us. I’m laughing at myself as I grapple with words, attempting to express and expose this elusive magic of evolution and spirit. It truly IS magical– to give life, to live life, to leave life, and yet, for life to extend continuously through time and space and blood. And to behold this in a frozen moment of time…
I look at these photos often, and am lifted to a place of awe. A soft wash of stillness floods me as my sense of self is expanded beyond time and form.
A few years ago, when someone would refer to me a “goddess”, I honestly found myself wondering what in the heck that even MEANT. It sounds “nice”. But what is the TRUTH that lives and breathes inside this glamorous title? Since then, I have genuinely explored this inquiry. What I discovered is simple. Each of us is a divine being, whether we know it or not. We are made of Infinite Love. I believe that a “goddess”, is one who has reawakened to this essential truth, and lives in accordance and service to the great love abiding in the hearts of ALL. I also believe that as women, we cannot fully know ourselves as the goddess until we have given our eyes and our hearts to Forgiveness, and let it cleanse our perception of our mothers. Divine love unifies. Always. And it is by the creative grace of this love, inspiring our mothers’ hearts, flowing through our mothers’ bodies that we are here.
In service to the joyful evolution of your awakened divinity, I invite you to come experience the powerful, healing alchemy of photographing your mother lineage.
May love inspire every step of your journey.
