Mother’s Day
Mary Prayer Garden
“A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.” — Victor Hugo
A couple of days ago, the world was celebrating Mother’s Day. I woke up that morning feeling so grateful for my children, two living and one angel baby. I thought of my amazing Mom and Mother-in-law and how wonderful our relationships are and the many lessons we have learned from each other when it comes to the actual task of “mothering.” I had spent the entire weekend working on getting the Aluna Guesthouse ready for our grand opening later this month. AND I was finding myself unfortunately fighting off a sick bug. With fever, sore throat and general fatigue, I slowly tapped nails into the walls of the house to hang curtains and framed paintings, dried florals and herbs. I ended each day, exhausted and a little frustrated that I had not gotten as much done as I would have liked, but nonetheless pushed through and I was starting to notice that each room was beginning to feel “charming” and like a real home.
On actual Mother’s Day, I tasked myself with the job of planting flowers and herbs in the backyard to create a prayer/meditation garden in honor of Mother Mary. By the end of the day, I found myself needing to crawl across the lawn on my knees, patting down the mounds of dirt around each plant’s roots. There were 23 total plants arranged in a circle with a statue of Mother Mary at the top center. As I planted each plant, I recited the “Hail Mary” prayer and asked her to please protect and guide the work that will take place in the guesthouse. I thought of the circle that was forming as being a giant medicine wheel.
I planted four “Cathedral Bell” soft pink Rose bushes in honor of four of my closest friend’s mother’s who had died the prior year. I knew this would be their first Mother’s Day without their moms in this physical plane. At the entrance of the circle opposite Mary, I planted two purple Foxglove plants, towering over the others. This was in honor of my angel baby, little Fox. I also planted Daisies in honor of a close friend whose friendship both my husband and I treasure. And finally two herbs associated with Mary & the bees: Lavender & Rosemary. Lastly, I added a fun new plant. New to me anyhow. It’s called “Cat’s Meow,” calling in the energy of this protective fun loving spirit animal. I finished up and set to watering each plant with a new water mister and was amazed to find these super bright, colorful rainbows appearing everywhere within the magic prayer circle. It was so incredible. Every angle I sprayed, revealed a gorgeous rainbow blessing the garden.
As I was walking back into the house to wash up, I found what I believed to be a tiny baby owl feather. I tucked it into the brim of my gardening hat and pondered about how owl feathers have always appeared in my life right before a really important awakening event. I had explained this to our website designer, Tenaya, and expressed that owl medicine has been very present in the dreaming about Aluna Bridge and the guesthouse for unhoused women and children for many years now, so she added owl to an illustration she made for this website. She placed it up in one of the trees, acting as a guardian.
My kids came over with pizza that night and boardgames so we could celebrate Mother’s Day together, but I could also just relax and recover. We had an amazing time, but I was still feeling so exhausted, I decided to just go straight to bed there at the Aluna guesthouse. My family went on to our home, and it was my first night in the guesthouse alone after everything had been put in its special place. Just as I was falling asleep, I heard both a mama and baby owl begin to hoot. It sounded like the Mama was actually teaching the baby how to hoot. I opened the window and could tell the sounds were coming from the very tree that stands over the statue of Mary and the prayer garden. They hooted long enough for me to capture a little recording to share with my family. We then slumbered off to sleep feeling the love of Great Mother in our hearts.