In honor of Mother's Day, this week's column is simply a video to watch and a prayer to share. First is the link to a video, entitled "The World's Toughest Job" that says it all. (Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB3xM93rXbY). The video stands on it's own and needs no further commentary. Enjoy it and please share it with others who appreciate the job and art of motherhood. Second, I share with you the Mother's Day prayer below. Mother's Day stirs up a wide range of experiences and emotions for all of us. Many people feel great joy and appreciation this day, while others are feeling hurt or loss. I love this particular prayer because it lifts up and honors all of these emotions. I am grateful for the Rev. Debra Bullock, rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Evanston, Illinois for sharing this prayer with me that she found in the book, Women's Uncommon Prayers: Our Lives Revealed, Nurtured, Celebrated, eds. Elizabeth Rankin Geitz, Marjorie A. Burke, Ann Smith, (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2000), 364. This prayer is written by The Rev. Leslie Nipps.
"On this Mother's Day, we give thanks to God for the divine gift of motherhood in all its diverse forms. Let us pray for all the mothers among us today; for our own mothers, those living and those who have passed away; for the mothers who loved us and for those who fell short of loving us fully; for all who hope to be mothers someday and for those whose hope to have children has been frustrated; for all mothers who have lost children; for all women and men who have mothered others in any way - those who have been our substitute mothers and we who have done so for those in need; and for the earth that bore us and provides us with our sustenance. We pray this all in the name of God, our great and loving Mother. Amen."
In the midst of all the emotions that we may be feeling this Mother's Day, we at Living Compass give thanks for, and to, all mothers and for all the mothering--whatever its source-- that we have all been blessed to receive in our lives.