Leadership Reflection: Honoring Mothers

This past weekend we celebrated Mother’s Day. In honor of our Mothers, I offer this poem by John O’Donohue from his book To Bless the Space Between Us. 

                  For a Mother 

                  Mother, 

                  Your voice learning to soother 

                  Your new child 

                  Was the first home sound 

                  We heard before we could see. 

                  Your young eyes 

                  Gazing on us 

                  Was the first mirror 

                  Where we glimpsed 

                  What to be seen 

                  Could mean. 

                  Mother, 

                  Your nearness tilled the air, 

                  An umbilical garden for all the seeds 

                  Of thought that stirred in our infant hearts. 

                  You nurtured and fostered this space  

                  To root all our quietly gathering intensity 

                  That could grow nowhere else. 

                  Mother, 

                  Formed from the depths beneath your heart, 

                  You know us from the inside out. 

                  No deeds or seas or others 

                  Could ever erase that. 

May you as Leader honor your mother and those Leaders who are a mother know you are loved and appreciated.