(1) Today is my mother’s birthday and although she has been dead for more than a decade I still think of her almost every day. At the time of her death I had not seen her for twelve years. Not… Read More ›
motherhood
Don’t Think About That – a poem of motherhood in this wounded world by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir
Get the kids out the door to swim Sunscreen, lots of sunscreen Summer’s worse every damned year Deadly heat waves are killing people as our civilization begins to crumble Don’t think about that, gotta remember to fill water bottles Pack… Read More ›
The Sound of Silence: a mother’s day reflection 2019 by Sara Wright
Here in the high desert it has been raining off and on for the last few days. A giant puddle sits in the driveway and all the trees range in color from subtle shades of sage to emerald. Fringed Chamisa,… Read More ›
The Race-ing of Innocence: Calling All Feminists to Converse by Marcia Mount Shoop
Well over 100,000 people and counting have read a blog post called “Nothing But the Truth: A Word to White America After the Recent Unpleasantness in Washington DC” that I wrote. Going on 400 commenters have weighed in on my website…. Read More ›
La Llorona by Sara Wright
The legend of La Llorona has been a part of Hispanic culture in the Southwest since the days of the conquistadores. Though the tales vary from source to source, the one common thread is that La Llorona is a woman named… Read More ›
To Dread and To Savor: Mothering in Real Time by Marcia Mount Shoop
It happened in the blink of an eye. So much of how we got here is blurry. I try to parse out the moments that came together to add up to this many years. I pause to absorb fragments, moments of… Read More ›
Carrying Our Mothers by Christy Croft
The past few weeks, I’ve been sitting with the many layers held by the concept, and the manifest reality, of mother, mothering, and motherhood. Mother is seen in the divine feminine, in the cosmos, and in the sea and the… Read More ›
The Last Time, by Molly Remer
I lie in bed with him, cementing the details in my memory. The way the morning air is heavy and green. The sound of last night’s raindrops continuing to drip from the overfull gutters on the roof. The insistent stab… Read More ›
What If…She’s Stronger than She Knows…by Molly Remer
“When I dare to be powerful–to use my strength in the service of my vision–then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” –Audre Lorde “The purpose of life is not to maintain personal comfort; it’s to grow… Read More ›
Get Serious: Don’t Die in Character by Oxana Poberejnaia
Recently I had a few experiences that brought home to me the meaning of a saying by the Buddha: What’s the laughter, why the joy, When the world is ever burning? Plunged into darkness, Won’t you look for a lamp?… Read More ›
Priestess as Shamanic Path – Part 2 by Molly Remer
This is a continuation of Molly’s piece from Wednesday, 10 August 2016. You can read Part 1 here. After explaining that the homebirth of her second son was her, “first initiation into the Goddess…even though at that time I didn’t… Read More ›
Priestess as Shamanic Path – Part 1 by Molly Remer
It is late autumn, 2009. I am 30 years old and pregnant with my third baby. He dies during the early part of my second trimester and I give birth to him in my bathroom, on my own with only… Read More ›
“All Children Are Our Children” by Carol P. Christ
“All children are our children.” As I was posting my recent blog about the shooting of black men by the police, these words came into my mind with the force of revelation. At the time I was looking at a… Read More ›
I’m Every (Bit A) Woman by Vibha Shetiya
I often recall the time many years ago when a relative sympathized with the fact that my kittie had been spayed. Pigou was one of five girl cats we had and rather than face the difficult task of having to… Read More ›
Dear Mum by Jassy Watson
Mother’s Day is coming up on the 8th of May here in Australia and while I don’t agree with the commercialization of it all, I do believe that motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society should be… Read More ›
Seeing Through My Nipples by Karen Moon
This article is inspired from my Facebook group’s book study of Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, specifically Chapter 11: Retrieving a Sacred Sexuality. I confess that I had never before heard of the term ‘seeing… Read More ›
Breastfeeding and the Abject? by Sara Frykenberg
The trappings of motherhood are all too powerful reminders that, as Catherine Keller reminds us in her book From a Broken Web, mother goddesses have to be continually slain for patriarchal heroes to be born. Indeed, she suggests that conceptions of Western selfhood are based upon this symbolic matricide—so it is no wonder that breast milk might be considered abject…
Great Mother, Mercurial Child by Kate Brunner
I am not a boy-mom. As much as I wish I was, I am just not. I gave birth to three wondrous little things; first, a girl and then later, boy-girl twins. I have a son, but even after years… Read More ›
Birth and Community by Sara Frykenberg
My daughter Hazel was born on a November afternoon. Just over two weeks old, my own individual role as mother is too young to comment on much here—I am thinking too much and too little about what it means, adjusting… Read More ›
Pregnant with Thoughts by Sara Frykenberg
I never liked the metaphorical use of the word “pregnant” as it tended to be used in the academy. Reading the “pregnant phrases,” of mostly men who were “pregnant with thought,” as a student, I felt angry by what I… Read More ›
Winter Solstice Meditation by Molly
When the wheel of the year turns towards fall, I always feel the call to retreat, to cocoon, to pull away. I also feel the urge for fall de-cluttering—my eyes cast about the house for things to unload, get rid… Read More ›
One Year After Giving Birth- My Story by Valentina Khan
I sat at the bottom of my stairs exhausted, lost, not knowing what day it was or rather not really caring what day it was. I was the overtired mother, who was still getting the knack of breastfeeding around the… Read More ›
A Mother Not Feeling Guilty by Natalie Weaver
Last Tuesday marked my fourth day home in over two months. I was researching over the summer in Europe. When I was not working, I was climbing up castle ruins or carrying groceries or creatively managing my children’s laundry with… Read More ›
Feminist Musings on Mother’s Day.
Happy Mother’s Day! Yes, I said it, but Mother’s Day invokes within me a certain hesitancy. Now before you say, “Well that’s because you don’t have children of your own so you don’t understand what it is like to be a… Read More ›
The Feminization of Poverty: The Impact on Migrant Mothers in the U.S. by Michele Stopera Freyhauf
I had the honor of speaking at the United Nations during the Commission for the Status of Women this past March about the Feminization of Poverty and the Impact on Migrant Mothers. Below is the text of my speech delivered. By posting… Read More ›
A Family Conceived, Lost, and Resurrected by Gina Messina-Dysert
Good Friday marks the second anniversary of one of the most significant dates in my life – the adoption of my daughter, Baby S – who by the way is no longer a baby (she will be turning 5 this… Read More ›
Sanctuary of Echoes by Natalie Weaver
Tomorrow I will have the unique opportunity to hear my son recite a poem I wrote before his class. The students were invited to select a poem to memorize and perform along with props or costumes as suited the material…. Read More ›
Struggles of a Catholic Feminist Mother by Gina Messina-Dysert
Maintaining a Catholic identity as a feminist has been a challenge. There have certainly been times where I have walked away from my tradition frustrated by teachings that are oppressive to women and LGBTQ, but I have always come back. … Read More ›
Truths My Mother Taught Me by John Erickson
I never gave much credence to religion but through my mother, I met G-d, and through her I understood that I’m not a feminist because of the books I’ve read but rather because of the woman I call mom.
Selfish Working Mothers Destroying the Natural Order? by Gina Messina-Dysert
It was nearly twelve years ago when I sat before my then pastor in pre-cana counseling and was told “how nice it is that you are trying to help women by working in a domestic violence shelter, but now that… Read More ›
