In my twenties and thirties I was a career person—actress, writer, playwright—and it consumed my life. (When you’re in Hollywood your involvement has to be 150 percent to make it!) Then I got pregnant and had my daughter, this beautiful creature, this little dolphin baby from outer space. I just fell in love with her! But I was shocked at how much she needed me and how much I had to give this little creature twenty-four hours a day. I was nursing every hour and a half, feeding, tending her crying, changing her diapers, the whole drill. And it just went on and on and on through the toddler years and then into the school years. And I totally got swept into the current of the phenomenon of the Mother Divine, the mother of the universe, and what our mother does for us, taking care of us, working to grow us, pouring her energy into us, giving us air and water and food and greenness and harvest.
I was conflicted because, well, what about my career? I tried to do it. I really, really did try to do it and I did do it. But something inside me broke in the process because I couldn’t really do motherhood and do the career thing. Not really. Not fully. It was hard. It was very hard because I felt guilty on both sides.
Barbara Bush experienced the same thing. She recently passed away, and I was really touched because I recalled that she said she had given her life to raising her kids. Then the feminist movement came along and the kids grew up and left home and she had nothing to do. She said she was alone and very depressed, wondering, “Did I waste my life? Did I waste 25 years because maybe there’s no meaning in being a mom?”
I think this is a really important question for us to ask. And it’s not that we have to be in one camp or another. I think we need to stop and reflect on this issue and then honor our choices. And then from these choices go back through the experiences and glean from them the wisdom, the power of what we’ve become through those experiences. Because these choices and these experiences are what is bringing us to enlightenment.
Personally, I made a choice to put 75 percent of my time into motherhood and 25 percent into my art and to my writing and others things I was doing. For me, that was the only way I could manage it all. And yet, it felt like I’d given up. Everyone I knew in Hollywood said, “What are you doing? What’s wrong with you? You’re not doing anything. You’re not contributing to society. You’re not helping. You’re not gaining anything,” and on and on. I had to look deep, I had to look deep inside of myself and ask, “What does this mean? What am I doing?” before I could gain the wisdom of it.
And then, one day, the wisdom came. I was washing my son’s clothes. (I now had a newborn son as well!) As you know, with two children in the household, all you do is laundry, lots and lots of laundry. And I resented doing that laundry. But that day as I was washing the laundry, I had a moment of enlightenment that was so juicy and so wonderful and so freeing that suddenly everything made sense.
It was me alone in a cave called the laundry room. A spiritual cave such as we used to use 2,000 years ago when we went to the caves to have spiritual experiences with water. Suddenly, in that moment, I was Miriam, the water keeper, performing the rituals of water purification. I wasn’t in front of a camera. I wasn’t in front of an audience. Nobody was saying,” Wow, look at you! You’re great!” Nobody was saying “good job.” It was just me in my 21st century cave in the laundry room of purification.
I looked at the big laundry bin and I thought, “Oh, my, I’m washing the karma of the world! Look how clean the socks are! Look how clean the underwear and diapers are!” I got so happy, I laughed in my own private dancer moment. And then a Presence filled the room, the Presence of that Divine Mother, the Presence my ob/gyn doctor, Uzi Rice, talked about before I gave birth. “Don’t worry,” she said to me. “There’s a mother in you that’s four billion years old. She knows how to birth a baby. Let her—the very creation of motherhood—do it.”
Thus, in the laundry room of purification, I began my path of choosing motherhood as a path to enlightenment. And when that happened, my entire perspective of reality changed. Joy came in, health came in, my relationship with my children changed for the better. I felt connected with everything and I felt a deep purpose—a purpose that was even greater than mothering my two children—an energy that’s the key to everything today: the energy of growth and transformation.
Growth and transformation are everywhere. More and more teachers, yoga instructors, astrologers, channels, spiritual teachers, people who speak with animals, it’s everywhere. This movement, it’s what it’s all about today. There is an energy, a current, a river of mother energy that is propelling this movement forward.
So, this month, I want to say, “Get in the boat. Get in the boat on the river and let the Divine Mother take you.” Whether your focus is motherhood or career, whether your focus is your art, fatherhood, or public service, each choice you make in life is your path to enlightenment and each choice will bring you incredible rewards, synchronicities of creation and miracles. And this applies to everyone. Even if you don’t have children, aren’t you sometimes mothering other people? Aren’t you sometimes needing to hold people and listen to people’s problems and take care of them and maybe cook some food or hold their hand or buy them a drink? Because mothering is an essential quality within all human beings, men included. (Later we’re going to talk about fatherhood as a path to enlightenment.)
So, how can you best evoke the nurturing quality which is so important for the whole world right now? How can you do this? I’d like to share just a few tips today and then finish with healing for us all.
Tip #1 – When your children (or your spouse or your boss or a friend) really push every button you’ve got and you think, “That’s it. I’m going to explode!” take a deep breath—a very deep breath—and connect to the large reservoir of water in your belly. We all have it—both men and women—the divine womb, the eternal peace called the OM of Existence. Within this pool of water, there is an orb of light, a brilliant bluish white orb of light. This is your soul.
Drop into that brilliant bluish white light of your soul. Visualize it, if you can. If you can’t, don’t worry about it. Just drop into it for a moment and reconnect to the core of yourself. Now, exhale. Keep deep breathing until your upset emotions and reactions go away. Now, steady within your inner soul’s light, you can save your kids. You can rescue the board meeting. You can help a friend. If you have to say something to the person(s) you’re dealing with, say something simple like, “Excuse me. I need a moment to center and focus.” (“Mommy has to connect to her center right now because she’s getting angry and she doesn’t want to be angry. Okay? I’m going to connect to my center and calm down, and this is how I do it.”)
Trust me, the kids will like this. (Plus, you’re teaching them to connect to their center when they’re dealing with bullies on the playground and other tough situations.) Your friends and co-workers will also appreciate it and will learn from your example. (Remember, this exercise only has to take a few quick moments!) Also remember, coming from the Divine Mother energy, you are first and foremost a teacher. Coming into that energy, coming into a neutral voice of setting a boundary, setting a rule, or getting people (children or adults) to do what they need to do to live life well and in harmony, is an amazing service.
But back to being a mom to kids for a moment. It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had. It’s exhausting. And though there’s no paycheck or awards or thousands of people clapping for you or photos on the covers of magazines, mothering is your private world. It’s your private world and your private connection to the River of Life, to Mother Divine. You’re on the front page of her magazine, because at the end of the day all that really matters is your enlightenment. As a mother I can tell you, your children are giving you an opportunity to get the greatest lesson—the only lesson there is—the lesson that, once achieved, leads to ascension. And that is to know how to love. And that includes knowing how to give love in all of its colors and how to fully receive love.
Love is a depth that is unexplainable. And when you allow yourself to deeply connect to your children, or others you’re caring for, you descend on a sacred ladder into the depths of an unspoken law, an energetic that is nothing less than the Wisdom of Creation. And when that wisdom holds you and suspends you, you have true power, true resolve.
Tip #2 – See your experience with the mundane as profound. The mundane is hard on the creative mind because it doesn’t seem creative. I know because I’m a creative person! My best advice is to practice finding creativity in the mundane. You know the old saying “chop wood carry water?” Well, basically it means enlightenment comes to us through the mundane. Yes, it’s wonderful to go on retreats. I give retreats and I’d love for you to come to one. It’s wonderful to go into the bliss together. And yet we always have to go home and chop wood, carry water … we go to the grocery store and do the laundry and cook the meals. So, practice finding what is profound in those private moments of the mundane. Be fully focused in the present moment, and when that happens, what will occur is a wisdom, an “aha!” a new way of seeing, an answer to a problem in a relationship or how to handle a business issue how to be wise with your children or your partner or with life.
These things will spring from your higher self because you will have fully dropped into the pure presence of the NOW, in the fully mundane. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but I promise, it works. I didn’t write this one. It’s a sacred alchemy that the ancients understood.
So try these two tips today. Write them on an index card and put them in your purse or in your wallet or briefcase so you’ll have them when you need them. Remember, first, go into your center. Find that pool of water with the light of your soul when it’s most needed, when your children (or life) push you to the breaking point. Then practice finding the profound in the mundane moments of your life, bringing in your full presence.
Be easy on yourself. If you can only do these once or twice a day or if you forget about them for a couple days, don’t worry. That’s why I always suggest writing tips down. When the ascended masters and the Archangels speak to me and give me the teachings, they always ask, “Are you writing it down?” I’ve spent 20 years writing this stuff down, putting it on pieces of paper and sticking it in my purse so I can pass it on to you!
Prayer: Let’s take a moment to be in the stillness and the presence of the Divine Mother who birthed us into creation. We give to you our greatest most humble gratitude for giving us light, for holding us, nurturing us, picking us up when we fall, bringing us hope, giving us your strength—and we need strength now more than ever for our children, our suffering. Give us the strength to mother them, to hold them, to inspire them, and let them know that we, the adults, are here to care for them and help them through a very challenging time right now.
We pray, Divine Mother, to release us from the violence. Send your shining rays, your eternal rays of topaz white light, into the heart of every child so they know they are safe and loved in every way by you. Send your redeeming love into the hearts and minds of all who would commit violence, that they find this love and their hearts are healed and they no longer have to act out because they have broken.
Divine Mother Presence, we love you and we thank you for the gift of life as we sit, now, beneath a waterfall of light, the eternal light of wisdom and understanding. Allow this light to wash away distraction, wash away fear, clear our bodies and souls and minds, so that we may be the mothers of the new souls coming to heal. Give us strength, give us the art of the possible, give us the ability to find compassion when we cannot find compassion, tolerance and non-judgment and teach us to love and to be loved so that we may enter your Cathedral of Light as embodiments of enlightenment on planet Earth. Amen.