By Chip Richards

Oversleeping slightly, I feel the pulse of my to-do list before my feet hit the floor. I stop to check the time on my laptop en route to brushing my teeth. It chimes with the arrival of several emails and I am very nearly sucked in to start reading. But a single beam of light reaches through the front window, calling me. Traversing to the door, I open with a squint. A breeze washes through me, beckoning me further.

Easing into the garden, everything begins to change… A patch of sunlit green calls me to pause for a breath, and instantly I am calmed, an anxious child comforted. Your pulse moves up through my bare feet, and your rays warm my face. Your breeze is a river now, moving through me, taking with it my to-do list and all that does not serve. The songs of your children surround me in morning flight upon your limbs, and the light you are is everywhere – in every leaf and drop of dew.

I am both bewildered by your complexity, and in awe of your simplicity. So many layers, so much depth, somehow all in balance, growing, creating, becoming, moving ever life-ward. Your simple way of being makes a gentle mockery of so much that humankind aspires to, and yet your embrace includes us all.

Here in this quiet moment of returning, my thoughts begin unravelling, creative questions start to answer themselves and inspiration returns where I did not even realise it was gone. Where have I been? You must have called me to this quiet place of You, knowing it would lead me to the same in me. Here you meet me without judgment. Here you hold me without words. And instantly I am more.

And in your graceful benevolence as my Great Mother, I am suddenly in awe of all earthly mothers, and their unique reflections of You, of my own mother’s continuous outpouring of love for her children (and theirs!) far and near, and of my beautiful wife – the sweet mother of my son. As I bear witness to the pulsing change of seasons in this garden, the passing storms and rising sun, the miracle of life giving birth to life all around me, I am overwhelmed by the reflection of this same essence in you – in the rising seasons of your presence as Divine mother in human form.

I am reminded of a shamanic journey I did a few years ago, in which, within a lucid vision, I felt the loving presence of several family members and friends ‘arrive’ energetically to my circle in support. Within the vision, I found myself connecting with Joshy my son, but searching continually for my wife Asheyana, wondering where she was… why her spirit had not also appeared to help and honour my steps. I searched the caverns of my mind but could not find her anywhere. Finally, as the vision rose to a climax, I leaned back, glancing upward inside… And there in my vision I saw her, where she had been all along… sitting quietly right behind me, holding my head in her lap.

This is the way of the mothers in our world. Your simple presence, seen or unseen, celebrated or seemingly ignored… dynamically, miraculously active, or peacefully, blissfully still… is the energy of creation that brings us all home. Thank you to the mothers, and the great Mother within, for dreaming us all into being.