Mother's Night

It's Mother's Night, friends. Are you doing anything to connect with your motherline? The eve of Winter Solstice is one of my very favorite times of the year to honor my direct maternal ancestors. It is a liminal time of introspection for me; the darkness and the stillness induces an almost euphoric sense of wonder when I consider the women from whom I descend. They are not abstract, or myth, or an imagining. They are real women who lived full, sometimes challenging, lives - women who, among other things, endured pregnancy, childbirth, and all that entails - all so that eventually I could be here.

Every single one of us carries mitochondrial DNA that has been passed exclusively through the maternal line, mother to child, unchanged in its essential structure for thousands of years. This is not a metaphor, it is a literal genetic inheritance. My mitochondria are living descendants of the ancient and modern mothers I honor on this night. They are a continuous thread of survival carried inside every cell of my body.

When I sit with that knowing, the night feels crowded with their presence in the best possible way, and I am filled with gratitude because I don’t need names or stories to feel their closeness. My body already knows them. My body IS them.

I'm off to light a candle and sit for a while with my offering of remembrance.  Blessings on this long dark night, and may you experience a fulfilling connection with your own mother lineage.