I pruned back my ideas of a perfect life
New this week: more of your reflections on motherhood
Welcome to the Mothering Spirit newsletter! Each Saturday morning, you’ll receive a round-up of the week’s posts—perfect for your weekend reading.
This week on Mothering Spirit
Kelly Mantoan writes about letting go of dreams of homesteading to embrace what it means to raise children with disabilities:
“It was a slow process to find joy where I didn’t think joy could exist—in illness, in exclusion, even in suffering…My life was not a beautiful glossy spread from Mother Earth News; we were not self-sufficient, and I realized we were never meant to be. We were meant to lean on one another, lean on our families and friends, and lean absolutely on God as He walked with us in our struggles and tried to show us the joy and beauty we weren’t allowing ourselves to see.”
Read the whole essay here: Pruning My Idea of A Perfect Life.
(And check out Kelly’s work as an advocate for parents of children with disabilities at Accepting the Gift.)
In the record-breaking heat that so many of us have weathered this summer, Katie Cassady gives us words for the gift of water:
We praise You for the many ways we are refreshed,
body and soul, by the gift of water.
The rush of running through a sprinkler,
or wading ankle-deep in a mountain stream,
is a delight to the senses!
In Baptism we were immersed in water,
claimed, and called by You;
our thirst is quenched by this same water.
Pray the whole prayer here: A Water Prayer.
This Week’s Recommendation
Each Friday we’re featuring more work from our writers. This week we're grateful to share an excerpt from Hilary Yancey's memoir about her son’s diagnosis with complex medical needs.
“Jack’s tracheostomy has meant both safety and danger—this question of suffering sits between me and God. I am still looking for a way to think and believe and talk about Jesus...I think others might be too.
Read the whole excerpt here and check out Forgiving God: A Story of Faith.
In Your Words
Starting this fall we’ll be featuring more of your words here! We know social media is a place where mothers of all ages and stages share from the heart about their joys and challenges. Each week we hope to bring you a glimpse into one mother’s life—in the hopes that her words might resonate with your own story.
This week’s post comes from Elizabeth Araxi Blanke (@elizaraxi on Instagram):
“Every August, I eat a million peaches. The flavor explodes like a burst of sunshine in my mouth. I remember the first baby we ever conceived, a tiny girl who died well before we even had real external evidence of her life. It was twelve years ago. A too-small measurement, a too-weak heartbeat. An excruciating week of waiting. Praying, hoping for a miracle. Then, silence. My body a tomb. The crushing reality of death inside of me, the immediate erasure of dreams for her life.
As I waited for her tiny body to be born, I wept, then laughed, maniacally, too hard with friends. And then I bought this pie plate and a big bag of peaches. I made a peach pie. I will never forget the syrupy sweetness of that pie against the bitterness of loss.
So every August, I eat a million peaches, standing at the sink, juice dripping down my elbows. And I make a pie for my baby, and imagine her dancing with her daddy in heaven. One day we will all dance together. But until then, the bitter sweetness of peach pie and grief. A tangle of emotion that gets more and more complicated as my life cycles through bloom, fruit, and fade, again and again.”
Want to share your words here? Tag @mothering.spirit in your post & we’ll let you know if we’d like to feature it in a future Substack.
If you like what you read at Mothering Spirit, we’d love if you’d share this with a friend! Maybe someone who needs encouragement in her mothering journey—or a place to pray in the midst of her busy days. Thanks for supporting our writers by sharing their work, following us on Instagram or Facebook, or becoming a paid subscriber on Substack.
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