When a Good Mother Sails from This World...

Always thinking of my dear Mum
with forever love... ❤️ 

Time passes… and what is remembered, lives… 

"Let us not look for you only in memory,

Where we would grow lonely without you.

You would want us to find you in presence,

Beside us when beauty brightens,

When kindness glows

And music echoes eternal tones."

~ John O'Donohue

~ Margaret June ~

 29-09-1931 ~ 12-01-2022

Mum and daughter Rainie enjoying happy holidays

 with family at the Sandgate Pool in Queensland

which my Grandad helped to build.

WHEN A GOOD MOTHER SAILS FROM THIS WORLD

When I say, ‘My mother has died’,

I mean my ‘most beloved’.

Leave me to myself now,

for I am a ship who’s

lost her riggings;

suddenly

come unmoored.

My mother has died;

She has earned her rest now,

waiting only, and proudly so,

for her sails

to be taken down.

I, the daughter,

see to the mending of my mother’s sails;

I seek her

worn and broken

threads of light,

reweaving her dazzling linen.

And though there be broken threads

not able to be rewoven,

I will gently pull the edges together

and stitch one side to the other…

and if not able to be mended,

then I will patch with parts

from my own most earnest life

over the places where my mother’s life

was worn through,

. . . or never was.

Over time, the sails of the mothership

will be fitted to the daughtership;

raised up on the mainsail,

and the final touch –

the red ragged flag – hers –

will be flying topmast of my ship.

I’ll be let down into the waters then,

I, the daughter, will glide again…

but this time, under the best sails

inherited from my mother…

and all the mothers of the motherlines

before her.

Ay, Mother, let me tell you

my treasured dearie-dear,

one last thing I have learned

from your spirit passing through me

as sparkling shadow passes

through darkening shadow,

on this open night-sea journey…

I am learning to navigate

by the mysteries of the farthest stars –

the ones that the great wake of your passing

has revealed to me

for the very first time.

______________

CODA

“When A Good Mother Sails From This World,” is an excerpt from a libretto called Woman. Life. Song. commissioned by Jessye Norman, played by the New York Symphony Orchestra and sung by self-same great mezzo-soprano Miss Norman; musical score by Judith Weir, British composer. The libretto was written by what some have since called, Las Tres Lobas: Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and
Clarissa Pinkola Estés.

Longing for Belonging and the Joy of Connecting to Family!

Well I am very pleased to say that in the short time since starting my blog, I have already been absolutely thrilled and delighted with some new family information and photos which I have found and also which have been generously shared with me... But even more special to me has been the opportunity to actually "connect" to people who share my Ancestry!

Creating a Place of Origin in your own home...

Hello again!

Today I would like to share with you the following wise words which resonate deeply for me about some of the things which have always pulled on my heart and soul strings in relation to my family and Ancestral connections...

Also offering a suggestion for one of the ways which we can all bring a sense of our own Belonging into our own homes...

I hope that as I have, you will find a sense of comfort, recognition and understanding about what I think can be best described as our:

Holy Longing...

"Occasionally you meet someone who knew their great-great-grandmother, who wears the handmade, ceremonial clothes of her people, who still stewards the land and sings the songs of her ancestors. But most of us are not so rich. Most of us have been orphaned from our ancestral land, and with it, our people's history, including the songs, teaching stories and wisdom ways of our lineage. And we may find ourselves looking in on families who are more intact than our own with a kind of unassuageable grief. This ache for something deeply familiar, yet entirely unknown, is our longing for a home we've always-never-known."

~ An excerpt from the chapter 'Holy Longing' in Toko-pa Turner's wonderful book "Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home" which is a precious book that I return to again and again for her deep insight and wisdom. Copies are available on Amazon, other bookstores and also from her website here:
https://toko-pa.com/belonging-the-book-by-toko-pa/

Place of Origin...

Because most of us have been orphaned from our ancestral land and the ways of our people, we suffer with the restlessness and ache of not-belonging. Instead of trying to regain what has been lost, Martín Prechtel teaches that we must learn to live in the way our ancestors lived; in reverence and indebtedness to the Holy in Nature.
One such powerful practice is to create a place in your home where you know the origins of everything. Not just where a thing came from, but who made it and with what skills, and at what cost to its roots. This Place of Origin may be small and sparse at first, but you add to it over time and, when the young ones come up around you, you tell the stories that you’ve collected in the hopes that one day, where you stayed put becomes a place of Belonging again.

~ Toko-pa
https://toko-pa.com

Ancestral Honouring & Remembering altar at my own hearth
which is filled with memories and stories to share

Having our Ancestral Memory in our Bones...

Claiming our place in the line, we affirm that the ancestors also live in our bones and in each cell of our bodies, and that we deeply affect one another.

Ceremonial leader Hua Anwa says:

"I really believe in us having our ancestral memory in our bones, and being in sacred space will help birth that reconnection to your ancient self. You’re an ancestor. You carry the line, right here. And so when we acknowledge that, it’s kind of overwhelming, because we should have all these wisdoms inside of us; if we’re the vessel for our ancestral lineage then it’s all inside of us. It’s not gone, it just needs to be reawakened and remembered. This ancestral connection is extremely important, and we’re the vessel for it, so it’s our job to remember it. And then pass it down, pass it forward."

Unlocking our connection to our ancestors, brings direct knowingness to the gifts that heal the worlds wounded soul. The ancestors cheer with tears in their eyes every time we take a step forward.

Storycatching...

The Town Historian by Serena Malyon

This illustration is a celebration of history being passed down
through generations.

The weavers of tapestries, the bedtime-storytellers,
 the manuscript illuminators.

This woman was tasked with recording the history of her town,

now she tells stories of old to all who would hear them.

“To follow Story is to understand the path of healing.

Each of our stories is a universe.

Each one of us is living a story.

To discover its shape and essence is essential to soul making.” 

~ Deena Metger

“As we walk, all of our ancestors walk with us....

As we dance, all of our ancestors dance the Sacred Dance. Each step that we place is an important one. All of our relatives are walking with us, speaking through us like the many colors of the rainbow. Listen, and you will hear their steps, their voices, their colors. Listen, and you will hear your spirit calling upon all our relations, and you will feel their energy…

May we always keep our feet on Mother Earth, our eyes and minds above the treetops, our spirit with the Great Universal Spirit.

And may we always walk with…a sense of humility, kindness, wonder, and respect for all living things as we follow the sacred trail of those who have come before us and those yet to come.”

~ Michael T. Garrett from Walking on the Wind: Cherokee Teachings for Harmony and Balance.

Artwork by Frank Howell