Hi Friend,

This weekend is, in the United States, Mother's Day.

These days, the association with Mother's Day is.... brunch. And flowers. And gifts of jewelry. Often, images of little kids jumping into bed with their mom and showing her hand-drawn cards, and maybe bringing her pancakes that they (perhaps) made themselves. Giving back in a way that is oriented within the individual family unit. In the US, 2026 Mother's Day is expected to be a record $38 billion in consumer spending; 3.2 billion will be spent on flowers (with a fair amount of advanced orders already in place). My own mother has always been skeptical of Mother's Day because it is so commercial.

The origins of Mother's Day, however, are far, far more radical. Far more aligned with the calls of regenerative culture and with the larger and longer movements for peace. Movements that could, if they keep going, lead us towards rematriation: returning the sacred to the Mother.

So after I did some research and some writing about the origins of Mother's Day, I decided the story was interesting enough - and long enough - to deserve its own independent article on the topic. It includes how Julia Ward Howe wrote an Appeal to Women throughout the World to come together for peace after the Civil War and to have a Mother's Day for Peace; how Ann Jarvis organized the (highly controversial) Mothers Day of Friendship to bring together the mothers of Confederate and Union soldiers in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia during the Civil War; and how her daughter, Anna Jarvis, almost single-handedly created a national and international celebration - one of the first (and still few) that honors anything that resembles mothering and motherhood. And I wonder into how might this holiday become an entry point to lean into the multiple dimensions of The Mother that is not just about brunch and can retrieve those earlier calls for peace.

You can find that article here.

And here's a short story from a recent event that Krissy and I attended about Conscious Capitalism that seems, in its own way, related....

We were in a breakout session (of about 15 people) discussing our relationship to money. An Indigenous elder (from Hawai'i) had shared about how a truly successful socio-economic structure is one that honors and cares for its children and its elders .... and that our contemporary society does not. Using this as a jumping off point, one of the women in the circle shared how, as a new mother, she was constantly moved by how much of her actions of mothering included eating and being eaten (aka nursing), an action that is both related to money (she buys the food she eats) but is also not, really, about money at all (most of human societies have cultivated their own food, not necessarily bought it), and it has brought her to an entirely new understanding of Mother Earth. That led to more heartfelt sharings from other new mothers (including about how hard the stress of bringing in money is while raising small children and the ways that cultures of care seem, so often, to be oppositional to the demands of capitalism). I shared about my experience of taking care of my own mother after her recent surgery (after her insurance stopped paying for her 24-7 care, the general recommendation is that the family hire someone to do 24-7 care if they can't do it themselves.... most care giving agencies charge $1000/day for this 'service', and most of that money goes to insurance... I talked about how I've been shifting between capitalist forms of care, community forms of enabling care, and spiritual/ceremonial support structures to enable care).

At some point in the circle, one of the Indigenous women in the circle said (approximately), 'You know, when we talk about the Mother, we aren't only talking about our actual mothers. We are also talking about the Mother. Mother Earth. You can relate to and lean upon Mother Earth, not just human mothers.'

I smiled. Her comment has stayed with me all week.

It's about the Great Mother. Not just the individual/family mothers. Right.

Was that what the white Christian/Protestant women who conceived of Mother's Day were trying to say? I doubt they would have said so; certainly not with the language I use today.

Still.

There's a lot in this history, and I hope you get something out of reading the article, if that interests you.

And I hope that if you are caring for others, then you are eating well. Delicious, beautiful food. For to care is also to give food - sometimes literal, sometimes energetic, sometimes emotional. So keep eating well, those of you who are also, in some ways, being eaten.

Many blessings

Sara Jolena

ps - yes the next origin stories cohort is coming together! Let me know if you are interested in joining us!