A Joyful Practice

The Ties That Bind (a short “renewed” post for Mother’s Day) May 12, 2024

Many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone observing the Second Sunday of Pascha, Counting the Omer, Buddha Jayanti, and/or working for peace (inside and outside).

“I know ten thousand women called Jane and Mary Jane
I’ve not seen any two who really were the same
(Mirror twins are different, although, their features jibe)
And lovers think quite different thoughts
While lying side by side”

— quoted from the 4th stanza* of the song (5th & 6th stanzas of the poem) “Human Family” by Maya Angelou (song by Maya Angelou / Shawn Rivera) 

This following is a “renewed” and slightly revised post from 2023 (with some additional context from 2020). The first embedded link connects to the original post, entitled “The Force of the Mother.”

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms. No matter how you came to be a mom (or what your kiddos call you), you are a powerful force in the world and represent a powerful Force in the world. The Mother archetype is present in every life story, every healing story, and in every religious and cultural story or myth. In the monomyth (or “Hero’s Journey”), the Mother can represent life, death, and time; nurturing, nourishment, and protection; unconditional love, acceptance, and devotion; as well as unselfishness. The Mother can present as the Matriarch, as Mother Nature/Gaia, as a Fairy Godmother, or as a Divine Mother/Goddess. The Mother can be seen as the Good Mother, the Working Mother (which opens up into a whole host of other archetypes), the Stay-at-Home Mother, the Perfect Mother, the Devoted Mother. the Co-Dependent Mother, the Abusive Mother, the Abandoning Mother, the Critical Mother, or the Hovering/Helicopter Mother.

I used the word “or” for the aforementioned archetypal patterns; because, in many stories, maternal figures are often portrayed as one-dimensional. As if every Mary is the same as every Mary Jane and every Mary Jane the same as every Jane (or Jean). In real life, however, mothers can be more than one thing… simultaneously — and sometimes in ways that may seem contradictory. In real life, mothers are people: they love, they hope, they desire, they fear, they teach, and they fit into so many boxes it doesn’t even make sense to put them into a box… let alone to regulate them to a single day.

And yet, here we are… Mother’s Day in the United States.

“I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.”

— quoted from the end of 1876 Sunday school lesson by Ann Reeves Jarvis (words that inspired her daughter Anna Maria Jarvis)

I added that “in the United States,” because for years I willfully ignored the fact that other countries — not to mention a variety of religions — celebrate Mother’s Day at other times during the year and in very different ways than the way the observation has evolved here in the US. While I don’t know if I will ever go back to teaching on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, I will continue to offer the 2020 recordings and a philosophy-based alternative recording for those who are on my Sunday mailing list (or who request a recording via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email me at myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com).

Click here to check out my 2020 blog post about Mother’s Day (which lands in a special way since my mom unexpectedly passed in 2020). For a deeper dive, check out the April 28, 2023 episode of Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford – The Dark Money Behind Mother’s Day. (This link takes you to the episode on Tim Harford’s website.)

The Mother’s Day playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “Mother’s Day 2020”]

“It is time for the preachers, the rabbis, the priests
Pundits and the professors
To believe in the awesome wonder of diversity
It is time for parents to teach young people early on
That in diversity, there is beauty, and there is strength

I note the obvious differences in the human family
Some of us are serious, some thrive on comedy
Some declare their lives are lived as true profundity
And others claim they really live the real reality”

— quoted from the 1st & 2nd stanzas* of the song “Human Family” by Maya Angelou (song by Maya Angelou / Shawn Rivera)

Since Mother’s Day 2024 falls on a day when I often focus on the common “threads” between different traditions, I am also sending the Sunday mailing list the practices from May 12, 2020, which feature another heart-centered (and hip-y) sequence inspired by Martha Graham.

Threads, Instructions, Truth, Practice, To Contemplate

The playlist for May 12th is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “05122020 Threads, Instructions, & Truths”]

“We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.”

— quoted from the last (repeated) lines of the poem “Human Family” by Maya Angelou 

*NOTE: The song “Human Family” contains the original poem written by Maya Angelou, plus additional lyrics by Maya Angelou and music by Shawn Rivera.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es).

You can still click here to Kiss My Asana Now! (Or, you can also click here to join my team and get people to kiss [your] asana!) 

Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.

 I will be back on schedule (and on Zoom) tomorrow. Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.

### AUM ###