Postponing Mother’s Day and Dame Julian of Norwich

I’ve been thinking about what I might write about Mother’s Day all day today. My daughters and I are postponing our “official” Mother’s Day until next week, combining it with oldest daughter Sarah’s birthday. The reason? Primarily because youngest daughter Rachael has law school exams on Monday (tomorrow) and Wednesday of this week and clearly needed to be studying rather than hanging out with me, and, secondarily, Sarah and Gregorio just moved last weekend and needed this weekend to try to get more settled in their new apartment. Therefore, we agreed that next Sunday – Sarah’s birthday – would make more sense for a Mother’s Day celebration as well.

Nevertheless, middle daughter Liz and her boyfriend Ron made waffles for Ray and me this morning at their apartment in Glendale, and, this evening upon returning from a fast trip to Ojai on business-related matters, I discovered that Rachael had come by and left me a beautiful bouquet of flowers accompanied by a sweet card. On top of that, all three girls wrote me loving messages on Facebook, which were quite a treat to read. Alas, it already feels as if I’ve had Mother’s Day though I only saw one daughter today. (Thanks for that great breakfast, Liz and Ron.)

Ron and Liz

Rachael’s Flowers

During the sermon at church this morning, our priest, Canon Ian Elliott Davies, mentioned Dame Julian of Norwich, 1342 – 1416, a mystic and visionary, whose book, Revelations of Divine Love, is thought to be the first book in the English language written by a woman. The book is a meditation on God’s love in our lives and in it Dame Julian writes, “As truly as God is our Father, so truly is God our Mother.” Canon Davies used Dame Julian’s writings to emphasize that God’s love has both paternal and maternal elements. That information presented on Mother’s Day seems especially poignant and fitting.

As Dane Julian writes, “…all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”

I might add, “Amen.”

I hope you’ve had a wonderful day today whether you are a mother or not.

I’ll be happily checking back in with you tomorrow.