MOTHERHOOD

THIS IS IN ANSWER TO THE

Thought for the Day in the next column.

My greatest gift this mother's day was knowing that God chose me to be a mother of two. I'm still in awe daily. I too was one of those women who believed in not having children because I wanted more time for MYSELF. Other reasons for not wanting to have children extended from - "This is a crazy world" to "What! and turn in to my mother?"  

Two years and two children later, my whole chain-of-thought has been broken and is in continual new linkage. Yes, it's true, I do the dishes, clean-up, change diapers, do feedings, give baths, change clothes, play with, entertain and teach the children then it's time for another meal, more diaper changes and cleaning. I even wait to take showers while they're napping or sleeping. My life isn't mine anymore, but I love it. I love every single day. I love waking up and thanking God, not just for myself, but for these two little people who I'm here to teach and love. When it was just me, I did all kind of crazy things and put myself in many dangerous situations.

Now, I'm careful of the predicament I put my children and myself in. I understand LIFE better because every day as I'm teaching - I'm LEARNING - about unconditional love, peace, joy, PATIENCE, gentleness, kindness, goodness, long-suffering and SELF-CONTROL.

Monitoring what my children see and hear is a major situation and I'm sure it will get harder as they get older and are in school.  For now, I put God's word in their spirit first thing in the morning. God's laws and God's ways of doing things.

I don't need any reward from any human being for what I do. My rewards come from God. I just know that my children have definitely saved me from myself and for that I'm willing to do anything for them. Do I still love to dance, paint, do photography, write and travel? - YES OH YES, but everything in it's time. I won't be changing diapers forever and when I do travel again - they will be with me and the trip will be that much more fulfilling.
Jackie

Thanks for sharing this, Joan. Very interesting dialogue! My thoughts on it come from Al- Anon. We are not doing men & children a service taking care of them. Much of this is co-dependence based & learned from our foremothers & our panic at seeing those we love stumble. So we try to help too much & rob our children of learning life's lessons firsthand. This may sound like a brutal reading on the situation, but it is actually extremely loving & has freed me up to soar to my own heights. The Al-Anon book "The Courage to Change" is amazing on this topic!

Peace Namaste & all that good stuff, Mari

So true, enough said. I love it. Omian

JC: Yes, well, having children is also an act of kindness. Taking care of them in this time and age is not as easy as it was 100 years ago. The WORLD is inundated with commercial media that effects the activity and desires of young people, which directly effects parenting. Saying "No" to children about their every wish or desire, generated by today's media, can result in sullenness and even depression because children belief they are privileged and should HAVE everything that they see everyone else HAVING, with paying anything in time or energy for it. Without the experience of having children in this day and age, it is difficult for clerics of any religious organization to understand the plight of parents today.

Even having children is a dicotomy because it is an act of kindness for a woman to allow her body to be used as a means of bringing a child into the world. Many women, today, are choosing not to be this kind to humanity. They are preserving their bodies for themselves and are not concerned with the perpetuation of humankind, if it means giving their bodies for that purpose.

  1. ENERGY & INTIMACY
  2. GIBSON & GLOVER MAKE NEWS
  3. MOON NAMES
  4. MELANIN
  5. VISUALIZING LIGHT
  6. BLACK THINK TANK RESULTS
  7. DRIVING WHILE BLACK
  8. THE STATE OF OUR SOULS
  9. DISTRESSED BY STRESS?
  10. MONEY AND SPIRIT
  11. DIVINE CONVERSATION
  12. MANSHARING
  13. SEX AND SKIN
  14. THINK AND ACT
  15. Gullah-Geechee Culture
  16. BLACKS IN NAZI GERMANY
  17. THE GIFT OF JAZZ
  18. WOMEN AWAKEN
  19. CHILDREN AND SEX
  20. BREATHE, MY FRIEND!
  21. WOMEN & MUSIC
  22. SINGLE GRANDMOTHERS
  23. AIN'T I A WOMAN?
  24. REPARATIONS
  25. MSG KILLS
  26. MOTHERHOOD
  27. STAND IN THE LIGHT
  28. FORGIVENESS
  29. COSBY SPEAKS
  30. TREE SHAKERS
  31. CHILDREN
  32. EAGLES
  33. TERRORISM IN AMERICA
  34. BARAKA ON MILNER
  35. NAMES OF AFRIKAN COUNTRIES
  36. INDIAN MEANS "IN GOD"
  37. WHAT IS BEBOP?
  38. ENGLAND'S BLACK QUEEN
  39. LETTER TO DAUGHTERS
  40. MASS ASCENSION
  41. RUNOKO & SCHOOLS
  42. AFRICAN DEBT RELIEF
 
  #26

   MOTHER'S DAY PROCLAMATION

After the heartbreak and deep wounding of the U.S. Civil War, Julia Ward Howe was moved to write the Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870.  It reads:

"Arise then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!

"Say firmly: 'We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.

Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.'

"From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, 'Disarm, disarm!'

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor does violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar but of God.
"In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace."

Moving video reading at:

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/8/mothers_day_for_peace_a_dramatic

http://codepinkalert.org/article.php?list=type&type=423

STAND BY THE LIGHT     

Why? Because men and children take this act of kindness by women for granted. So, when they refuse to bear children, they have more time on their hands to wake up by themselves, have a precious human life and not waste it on taking care of other people - men and children - who rarely appreciate the sacrifices that women make to take care of them. They can use ALLLL of their energies to develop themselves and maybe expand their hearts to others, have kind thoughts, not get angry or think badly of others who are getting on their last nerve by crying, begging, demanding, desiring all the things that men and children think they need from women. They can benefit others in ways besides caretaking, cooking, cleaning and basically fulfilling all of their wants and desires without expecting any help from them whatsoever.

Get my point??? Being a monk is a commendable thing. But there would be NO HUMAN RACE if women decided that monkdom was the best thing in the world for them to partake in. Let's be real, wisdom comes from living. Living involves procreation, which monks do not partake in. Children and husbands demand more from women than most present day women care to give. When women become monkish, the human race will cease to be and there will probably be PEACE AT LAST!

Thought for the Day from http://www.WisdomAtWork.com

"Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.  I am going to use all my energies to develop myself.  To expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts toward others, I am not going to get angry, or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can." -- H.H. The XIV Dalai Lama Ahhh))))

JC:   Evidently, the Dalai Lama doesn't have children.

You're right, the Dalai Lama doesn't have any children. He's just the leader of a nation that has been brutally occupied by the Chinese for nearly 60 years, and has witness the deaths of nearly a million of his people, the destruction of his land, and nearly all of the libraries, monasteries, medical schools, and universities of his people, and who lives in exile and greats an endless flood of refugees fleeing Tibet with horrendous stories of torture, rape, brutal captivity, etc.   He is regarded by his people as an incarnation of the Bodhisattva/angel/archetype of Universal compassion, and refers to himself as a simple monk, whose religion is kindness.

Thought for the Day from http://www.WisdomAtWork.com