This is so beautiful and vulnerable and emotional, Barri. I feel like there are so many motherless mothers out there that could use your insights to help their hearts heal -- for themself, for their mothers, and for their children.
The bottomless ache for mothering as a mother is so real. And so are the doses of mothering we get from therapists, mentors, and friends. Thanks for naming and validating it.
My mother died at 102 and I obviously had decades with her, but after the death it is never enough. I look back at the things I should have said, and done in her later years and feel shame and sadness. I held her had as she died . I believe you never move on from the loss of a mother.
Whoa. . .thank you for saying this out loud - "The joy of having a mother daughter relationship again, seems to be coated in a sticky malaise." Thank you for writing such a spot-on truth about the unspeakable emotions (for most of us) we experience as mothers. . .My mother was called Grandy and she couldn't show up for the "save" and I remember how as a new mother I felt like an orphan ,and it only until I read your essay that this realization bubbled to the surface! Thank you.
This is so beautiful and vulnerable and emotional, Barri. I feel like there are so many motherless mothers out there that could use your insights to help their hearts heal -- for themself, for their mothers, and for their children.
You are such a generous reader and lovely soul.
I'm just reflecting your light. Keep shining.
The bottomless ache for mothering as a mother is so real. And so are the doses of mothering we get from therapists, mentors, and friends. Thanks for naming and validating it.
Thank you for reading. "The bottomless ache" ... indeed.
You prose like a poet, Bar. Immediacy and mystery, profound and quotidian, reflective while moving forward. So beautiful.
Thank you.
My mother died at 102 and I obviously had decades with her, but after the death it is never enough. I look back at the things I should have said, and done in her later years and feel shame and sadness. I held her had as she died . I believe you never move on from the loss of a mother.
Whoa. . .thank you for saying this out loud - "The joy of having a mother daughter relationship again, seems to be coated in a sticky malaise." Thank you for writing such a spot-on truth about the unspeakable emotions (for most of us) we experience as mothers. . .My mother was called Grandy and she couldn't show up for the "save" and I remember how as a new mother I felt like an orphan ,and it only until I read your essay that this realization bubbled to the surface! Thank you.
Thank you for reading and sharing your reflections and "bubbling". 🤍
Thank you Barri for these tender, raw and resonant words.
Love you for reading.
so important to talk about this; remothering, reparenting ourselves.
Thank you Gail. I keep meeting her and myself and missing her over and over again.