This month I have done nothing but mother
Where there’s a shadow, there’s always light
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
Rebecca Smyth gives words to the suffering that so many mothers experience with mental health struggles during pregnancy:
“What the well-wishers don’t know is that the depression I’ve kept at an arm’s length since that teen pregnancy has swallowed me whole.
Every night I ignore my heavy eyelids, because if I fall asleep, then I have to wake up, and it’s much easier to exist in the nothingness of the night.
I want to tell you I cry out to God, but I don’t know if He’s here anymore. If He ever was. I have given up asking Him to reveal Himself in the darkness. Like a terrified child who sees everything differently with the bedroom light off, I wonder if God is who I’ve always believed Him to be.
‘I’ll stay alive,’ I tell Him, whether He’s there or not. ‘This baby will make it, even if I don’t.’ And with new resolve, I succumb to sleep.”
Read the rest here: Waiting for Resurrection: Depression and Pregnancy.
Hannah Napier Rosenberg offers a poem on motherhood that speaks to seasons of sacrifice and surrender:
And even though nothing
else has been done, I imagine all great
things began with someone who
stopped their own orbit for a moment
in time to do nothing at all but mother.
Read the whole poem here: Nothing But Mother.
From our sponsors
This week’s writing is sponsored by Be A Heart Design, a modern Christian lifestyle brand that creates beautiful products to help both adults and children grow in faith. Be sure to check out their new "Jesus Heals" bandages and beautiful ceramic wall altar!
This Week’s Recommendation
Each Friday we’re featuring more work from our writers. This week we're delighted to share an excerpt from The Beauty of Motherhood: Grace-Filled Devotions for the Early Years by two Mothering Spirit writers, Kimberly Knowle-Zeller and Erin Strybis. Kimberly writes about being fed by her community during struggles with postpartum preeclampsia:
“All I could manage was feeding Isaac and taking deep breaths to try to lower my blood pressure. So, when our church young adult group started delivering meals for our entire family, I received their gifts with open hands. Their food nourished our bodies and our spirits.
I remember the lasagna and Texas Toast, the box of Panera scones, tater tot casserole loaded with cheese, chicken and Red Hot sauce, the homemade pizza, crusty and pepperoni-filled, and the garden vegetable soup. We found bags of ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, and fresh herbs on our porch. Iced coffee and donuts were delivered for breakfast. Repeatedly I opened our front door to be met with warm food from our community.
Each meal handed over felt like our friends were wrapping us in their arms and holding the wonder of this new child along with our fear and worry for health and healing. Their food became extensions of communion—a meal given and shared, a hope extended, and grace overflowing.”
Read the whole chapter here: Nourished.
Substack Spotlight: starting next week!
We’re excited to build a bigger community on Substack and share more good writing on parenting and spirituality. Starting next Saturday, we’ll feature one Substack publication a week to get you connected to more writers reflecting on faith and family. Interested in having your newsletter featured? Contact laura@motheringspirit.com for more information.
In Your Words
We’re now featuring more of your words here! We know social media is a place where women 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 woman’s life in the hopes that her words might resonate with your own story.
This week’s post comes from Judy Howard Peterson (walkingpastor on Instagram):
“I spent this past week with my mom and while many of the details from my childhood are now a bit hazy, one thing remains crystal clear, my mom remembers that she loved me even before I was born.
And I will testify that it is a life-giving, life-transforming and life-stabilizing grace to be on the receiving end of a love that loved you before you were born, loves you all the way through, and will love you no matter what.
Yesterday, I drove my mom back to Minneapolis. And after we sang some hymns, listened to part of a podcast and sat in silence bearing witness to 1000s of acres of corn, I said, ‘I love you mom’ and she replied with a smile, ‘I’ve loved you longer.’ It just never gets old.
After a minute, I said to my mom, ‘This is why I no longer believe in the gospel as it was first preached to me or as I preached it to so many for so long. I don’t believe we were separated from God at birth and I don’t believe God loves us in some sort of limited way in the years before we know the ABCs of the Christian faith. And I don’t believe this, because it’s become abundantly clear to me that the way you have loved me is way better news than that.’
My mom agreed that it made very little sense that God would be less loving than her. And as we continued to make our way through the wide open spaces of Wisconsin I said, ‘Let’s keep telling people the good news that God loved them even before they were born, loves them all the way through, and will love them no matter what.’
My mom replied, ‘Yes. Let’s do that.’ And then we sang another hymn.”
Want to share your words here? Tag @mothering.spirit in your post on social media & we’ll let you know if we’d like to feature it in a future Substack.
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