May Flowers and Mothers

A Zoom gathering, where we shared stories and warm conversation

Mother
– Lola Ridge (1873-1941)

Your love was like moonlight
turning harsh things to beauty,
so that little wry souls
reflecting each other obliquely
as in cracked mirrors . . .
beheld in your luminous spirit
their own reflection,
transfigured as in a shining stream,
and loved you for what they are not.

You are less an image in my mind
than a luster
I see you in gleams
pale as star-light on a gray wall . . .
evanescent as the reflection of a white swan
shimmering in broken water.

We talked about health and transitions in our lives and in the Springing earth around us.

Here is some news and inspirations from our time together:

• Two Our Hour friends have visited twice, with one bringing lovely daffodils from her yard. They sat on the deck in the sun, in wonderfully interesting conversation about technology and transportation, suiting both of their interests. (They are both engineers – a pilot, and a transportation specialist. It is nice to find a like minded person to talk with!
• There is anticipation about a most beautiful and colorful summer explosion of flowers at a mother’s farm. 
• The Monkey Puzzle Tree is a native of the Andes Mountains of South America, sometimes referred to as a living fossil. 
• We spoke as of Montana and Madeline island in Wisconsin. The population on the island is 267 in winter and over 2500 in summer and is in Lake Superior. There is a strong Native American presence there of the Ojibwe tribe.
• A friend placed a burning bush at her husband’s cemetery plot, and it brings such vivid red color which she loves. She laughed that no one told her that it had such sharp thorns!
• One friend showed the flowers she received on Mother’s day from her sons. They had an unusual lily that looks similar to a pitcher plant and may be a calla lily.

There were so many different ways that we all celebrated – and were celebrated – on Mother’s day, and we are all grateful for having spent loving time with others, even at a distance.

We also recounted some (after-the-fact) funny stories of struggle and, finally, success, involving hose mishaps, flooding basements and kitchen floors, and nozzles that couldn’t be removed. We laughed together at our common struggles, and we saw our creativity and persistence in figuring out other ways to get the jobs done. 

Our time together, inspired by mothers, mothering, and the blooming spring, reminded us to make the best of life and whatever is thrown our way.