All Kinds of Mamas

Mama of the Milky Way 2012 by Shiloh Sophia McCloud www.shilohsophiagallery.com

This is a blessing for all kinds of mamas. Yet I want to acknowledge that mothers who give birth and have children, who love them, you have all kinds of other ways that you are honored. This may be a little less about you and a little bit more about all the other kinds of mamas.

Because there are so many ways that women navigate the mothering journey. I have republished this poem since 2012, editing it every single Mother's Day. And as I was reading it today, I felt definitely a little triggered and a little worried. I don't want to rain on anybody's parade, but there is some gravity to this mothering.

And I want to send it out as a blessing for all kinds of mamas. I say triggering because of its inclusion of loss. Today I'm thinking of my mothers, Caron McCloud and Sue Hoya Sellers, and giving thanks for two moms. Giving thanks to my community for this matriarchal framework within which we remother one another.

Shiloh Sophia

p.s. if you want to add a line in the comments - about what kind of mother you are, be welcome, often I weave these in too ;)

A blessing for all kinds of mamas

Your mother wove the fabric of the universe in which you came forth.

This day we honor our mamas for giving life to us

and all different kinds of mothering too.

For mamas-to-be cradling expectant bellies,

we look forward to life with you.

For those giving birth,

we extend the strength of the circle of women

that you and your child are held in love.

For those tilling fertile soil with hope,

may fruit be born of your womb.

For the mamas who are being embraced by your children today,

oh, how we celebrate with you. We do.

Yet this is also a blessing

for women who tried and yet did not carry or birth,

but have that mothering heart.

Your body carries the codes of life.

Every time you create, your mother life energy is shared.

This blessing is for mamas who miscarried,

carrying precious life in your womb.

You are still a mother of life,

even if that life

did not cross the veil from your womb into form,

into your arms.

May you experience grace, unreasonable grace.

This is a blessing for mamas whose child

was lost by their own choice.

We send a compassion from our hearts

knowing it can never touch the ache and the worry and the wonder.

This is for mamas who died giving life to her child.

And for the lives who suffered the loss of her.

This is also for the children who lost your mothers too soon.

Ancestor mothers, we love you, may you all be remembered.

I remember you.

This is a blessing for mamas

who grieve the impossible loss of a child

to death or to separation by their choice from you.

May all of your hearts be comforted in

knowing you are not alone

For the stories of mothers and their children

are many and great and carry the gravity of this challenging world.

You are not alone. We embrace you today.

This is also for women who did not carry children by choice.

who simply decided, not this lifetime. I'm good.

Thank you for knowing your own voice.

This is for those who have become the mothers of others,

other people's children,

other mothers who could not do what it was you were called to do.

So thank you for co-mothering

Many of you, many of you are mothering the future

with the life force that other mothers gave to their children.

You are a mother too. May life be bountiful for you.

May you be renewed in your offerings

of what it is you choose to create. We see you. T

his is a blessing for the mamas w

ho had to give up their birthed babies to other mothers.

May you find some kind of strange peace

in knowing your child has another mother to love them.

Even if you don't pray, there is a prayer in your heart for your child,

a light that never goes out.

You chose to give life and that choice will always be with your child.

This is also for the mothers who started to carry

and chose not to carry to fullness.

Who continue to wonder and grieve

and especially if you did not once again conceive and you wanted to.

This is for women who chose to mother

those children whose mothers

could not mother them.

Your co-mothering with another mother p

rovided the love she was not able to give.

May your chosen child

be able to receive all the love you have to give and return it to you.

May you be filled and lifted by chosen family.

This is for mamas who were mothered well.

Oh yes, praises be to your mama.

Thank you mothers who were not able to mother well, or well enough.

You did your best, didn't you?

You did, even if it doesn't always seem like it to your children.

You showed up to the best of your ability. A

nd even if we think you didn't,

maybe today we could just forgive you.

For you are you. And we are we. Praise this be to our mothers.

This is for those mamas

who just didn't know how to raise you well enough.

May healing come to you, child.

Especially for those who had crazy mamas

who eventually taught you one way or another

that you had to tend to your own life on your own terms.

Let's set our mothers free and set ourselves free.

And if you're a mother, set your own children free too

from too many of your stories. Can you do that?

Maybe not today, but another day.

Lift your stories off of them.

Let them find their way.

We know this, that any mama that did not love you well enough

was not well enough herself.

In so many of her family stories, she didn't know how,

wasn't mothered herself well enough to mother you well.

This is for the mamas who right now

struggle to care for their babies

And A special prayer for the mamas

whose children have abandoned them.

Whatever the reason, the pain is real. You are not alone.

This is for the mothers that you adored

that have gone on ahead dancing in the Milky Way.

Hopefully you will see her again one day.

We see you ancestral mothers and grandmothers

and grandmothers, grandmothers, grandmothers,

all the way back to the first grandmother.

You are never gone from us.

This is also for the women who are in the change,

the pause of the red moon,

and the loss of the mother energy

as it was in your body

as you move into grandmother energy,

regardless of whether you have grandchildren,

and especially if you have grandchildren.

We welcome your moving toward elderhood at your own pace

Yes, we do.

We all need remothering

when our physical mother is no longer in form.

That's why this is a blessing for women who love,

who are all mamas of all creation.

A blessing for women who gave their mama love

to lovers and projects and dreams.

May you rest into choosing yourself

to bless and nourish your own life.

For those who are midwifing humanity

and tending to the needs of Mother Earth,

Mother Earth, we bless you as you bless us every day with life.

Mother Nature, forgive us and teach us and show us how to be your family.

This is a blessing for young mothers and single mothers

who want a true-hearted mate who can look them in the eyes.

For women working too hard for too little.

And for married mamas who feel so blessed to be loved by another,

to make life with them. Your husband, your wife, making magic in your life.

For those like me who have two mamas,

how blessed your children are to have two of you to love them.

And you know what?

Right now, a blessing for those who are coupled

with partners who do not see them in their fullness.

We feel this. We send our seeing to you.

May you arrive in your fullness

because you are full of life.

Let's say a blessing for the mamas who,

after giving birth, felt they lost their identity for a cycle.

May you return to yourself.

For those women whose mothers

did not hold them close enough and cradle them and breastfeed them,

Maybe you can find remothering

in a Red Thread circle of women.

Oh, we give thanks for the fairy godmamas and the goddess-mothers

and the aunties. Our children need your stories.

For happy mamas whose children honor them.

For sad mamas whose children just don't know what it was like.

For those who still don't feel like a good enough mama.

For mamas who struggle with despair, depression, danger, and anger.

Our prayers are mighty for you today.

For those who are mamas of lineages and legacies

and bodies of work who share your gifts.

You share your gifts with those who are not blood,

yet you are bonded together by love

with a red thread of connection.

All women, all mamas, all grandmothers, all sisters,

all daughters, we honor you.

We unite in our love to send a blessing to all the mamas.

May our quest for wholeness, connection,

and belonging and healing bear the fruit of our joy.

Blessed mother of life, Divine Mother,

hear the prayers of your children this day.

Open our hearts to hear and our eyes to see

what you are speaking to us and through us.

Give us your sound wisdom.

Make us the wisdom keepers that we are born to be.

This is for the circle of mamas that surround us who are teachers.

who pass on these wisdoms.

For all the mothering not spoken here,

include yourself, just do, for you, for you, for you,

for the water mother, the earth mother,

the fire mother, the moon mother, the sun mother,

the air mother, the ether mother,

the spirit mother, the root mother,

May we remember from whose Milky Way breast

we are fed on the milk of love and compassion.

Mama, wake us from our sleeping.

Mama, call us to awareness.

Mama, let our hearts receive your love.

Mother life, we love you.

Thank you for all who have mothered me

for the good mothering I have received,

and for letting me re-mother some of you.

Mother Mary,

thank you for showing me we need a mother in this story.

May this blessing for all kinds of mamas

ring out as a song of praise for mother life.

We celebrate you this day.

with love,

Shiloh Sophia