• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Women's Legacy Project
  • Home
  • About
  • How To Curate
  • Our Collective Legacy
  • Writing Online Memoir
  • Blog
Women's Legacy Project > Blog > KNOW > Done Nesting > Once a Mom… Always a Goddess

Once a Mom… Always a Goddess

Written by: womenslegacy
Published: September 24, 2012 -- Last Modified: September 24, 2012
6 Comments

Once a mom…always a mom. I think that is one of the reasons that until I was over 30 I was certain I would never have children. It is so… um well, irreversible. There are irreversible changes in brain chemistry once you are in a motherly way. At least that is the way it is supposed to work. Broody phase and all that. You know when the hen has an overwhelming urge to sit on her nest until the eggs hatch. Women's brains do something similar, except it isn't a phase that ever ends, at least not completely.

Biology lesson time. There is a trajectory in mammalian evolution toward the retention of juvenile characteristics; this is also known as neoteny. And as I have said, so many times, over and over again, there are no unidirectional processes. While offspring change, parents probably change too. Staying dependent, a juvenile characteristic, for long periods of time requires parents stay in parenting mode for long periods of time. The change that allowed for lots of learning required lots of teaching. Everything moves in multiple directions. That is one of the things that most amazes me about life. Nothing has but one facet; well except for Möbius strips (those are slices of a Klein bottle.) There are multiple truths for every single fact. Truth is about interpretation. No two people will ever have the exactly identical interpretation of anything. We are unique individuals. Even if somehow we had the identical biological identity, as with identical twins, the environment of gestation, before birth, will not be identical and will shape the forming persons differently.

So, that is enough bio lesson for now, but women have evolved to be, and this is metaphor folks, lifelong wombs. I love the Gaian concept of the planet Earth being our mother. There is a largest level of life on this planet that can be understood as a single living system. The misconceptions about this theory are staggering in their shear numbers alone. Living systems are so complex that we cannot untangle all the relationships to understand them. So we have ways of understanding that are simplifications. Science simplifies. Religion simplifies. All ways of knowing are simplifications where only part of the truth that exists can be conveyed from one being to another. To have words be perfect representations would mean that the description and the thing would be identical. And that is impossible. Just speaking is simplification. Rarely do our words match the elegance of our thoughts.

Gaia, the Goddess, and motherhood are, for me interrelated concepts. I play with concepts in a way that most people would find strange at best. But I love thinking about thinking. And I believe that we as a people, and as a planet, need to incorporate as much of the feminine into our models or representations of our world and our understanding as is possible. Others may not see it that way. That is fine. I just wonder if there is any way to coexist with peacefully with people who insist that everyone else in the world has to agree with them on a particular point. Mothers know that every child has a unique sensitivities and gifts. Truth changes a tiny bit with the interpretive filter we each put it through. Nearly all women and girls have the spark of a caring nurturer and fierce protector in their hearts, that essence becomes active within every cell of our bodies during gestation, and I am convinced that once activated it cannot be turned off.

The feminine divine, the inspired mother, the sacred feminine, and the holy mother are all ways we as a culture marvel at the mystical power to bring new life into the world. I am not sure we can ever know where one state of being stops and another begins. And maybe that is the lesson we are to learn. The Mother Goddess within us all is Mother Möbius where there is no beginning nor end.

 

Posted with BlogsyPosted with Blogsy

Categories: Done Nesting, Info TheoryTags: Gaia, goddess, motherhood, nature, nurture, perception, Political Woman

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org
Previous Post: « Tumbleweed Tails and Gelato – The Italian Connection
Next Post: Recursive Images of Memory »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tim

    September 24, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    Fantastic!
    ” Living systems are so complex that we cannot untangle all the relationships to understand them. So we have ways of understanding that are simplifications. Science simplifies. Religion simplifies. All ways of knowing are simplifications where only part of the truth that exists can be conveyed from one being to another.”
    Pure genius.

    Reply
  2. Nancy

    September 24, 2012 at 4:30 pm

    Why thank you! I had great teachers.

    Reply
  3. Still Blonde after all these YEARS

    September 24, 2012 at 8:03 pm

    I always knew I was a Goddess. Thanks for letting others see it in me!

    Reply
    • Nancy

      September 24, 2012 at 9:16 pm

      🙂

      Reply
  4. Lori Lavender Luz

    September 24, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    Interesting thoughts! Especially throwing a Mobius strip into it. That will make me think awhile.
    Gestating isn’t the only way a woman can become a mother. My womb has been inactive but I am a nurturer and a goddess just the same 🙂

    Reply
    • Nancy

      September 24, 2012 at 9:14 pm

      True,and men can be nurtures too. I think gestation activates it for some, but not all. Others just have to think baby and the circuits flip and the chemicals flow. I’m sorry if I seemed insensitive to cultural triggering of our love circuits.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Ending, and Beginning
  • For Our Daughters
  • Stand and Write
  • Context and Little Things
  • A Month is Just a Month… as Time Goes By
  • Processing Two Very Different Deaths
  • A Dehydrated and Delusional Friend Found Wandering in 100° Heat
  • About Women’s Legacy & Hill Research
  • Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Archives

Powered by
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
View my Flipboard Magazine.

© 2023, Nancy Hill, Women's Legacy Project of Hill Research Services, LLC

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT