With Mother’s Day this week, I wanted to write a piece that celebrates and reflects on the Mother energy of nurturing and care in our lives.
What is the essence of being a mother or mothering another being? Parenting, at its core, is a story of nurturing, guiding, supporting, cheering and loving through all of the complexities and challenges of children becoming full-fledged adults. It starts by bringing care and protection to a totally helpless being and eventually they become a functioning human being. And this journey is made possible because of deep nurturing.
Businesses can be like children, too. When I founded Mother Magnolia in 2000, I had no way of knowing that 25 years later those two words would still be alive and filled with so much meaning for me. And yet, here we are, 25 years later and we are still exploring ways to evolve the business and the products and services we can provide. But a significant through line for us—the north star after all these years—is the energy of nurturing. The responsibility that we have for caring for and nurturing the plants at our farm is the core of what we do. And in turn, our employees expect that our organization will bring that same care to their needs. The success of our business is entirely dependent on the energy of caregiving. The better our team has gotten at nurturing the plants in the garden, the better the quality of each successive harvest, the more value we bring to our customers with a higher quality product. Nurture.
One of the things I love about words is that they have these invisible layers; and if you probe a little deeper, you can find more meaning. Nurture has a complex origin with Middle English, French and Latin roots all connecting. The Latin word nutrire—which is also the root of the word nutrient—to suckle, to nourish, feed, foster. The French word, nouriture, which is the word for food. In Middle English, norture, which means training or upbringing. So when you use the word nurture, just know there are layers of meaning that all point to a deep sense of life-giving energy that at its best is generative for both the provider as well as the recipient. This is what makes the energy of nurturing so profound. It’s the ultimate win-win.
When we cultivate plants and we nurture them, they thrive. That on-going dialogue is the essence of our relationship with our gardens. It is a dialogue of nurture and attention to detail. We provide that nurturing through nutrients and water, supporting the optimal growing conditions. And the plants that we cultivate in turn provide food, flowers, seeds, shade, fuel, etc. The cycle of nurture. I call this the nature-nurture cycle.
Action Item: On a 10 count, simply reflect on elements in your life where nurturing energy is present. Find a specific example. And then lock in on an area in your life where you need to bring more nurturing energy: writing, gardening, creativity, etc. When you find an area that needs some work, create one single action that could be done every day to increase the care and focus in that area. For me, nurturing a writing practice means allocating a set block of time every day to simply sit down and write.
I’ll leave you here with a powerful poem from one of my favorite poets of all time, Rumi. When we get “to the root of the root,” we can see more clearly and we can actually find a way to create the change we seek. A quick moment of breathing and slowing down offers up a way to let the dust settle and allows us to get to “the root of the root of yourself.”
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The Root of the Root of Your Self
Don’t go away, come near.
Don’t be faithless, be faithful.
Find the antidote in the venom.
Come to the root of the root of yourself.
Molded of clay, yet kneaded
from the substance of certainty,
a guard at the Treasury of Holy Light —
come, return to the root of the root of your Self.
Once you get hold of selflessness,
You’ll be dragged from your ego
and freed from many traps.
Come, return to the root of the root of your Self.
You are born from the children of God’s creation,
but you have fixed your sight too low.
How can you be happy?
Come, return to the root of the root of your Self.
You were born from a ray of God’s majesty
and have the blessings of a good star.
Why suffer at the hands of things that don’t exist?
Come, return to the root of the root of your Self.
You are a ruby embedded in granite.
How long will you pretend it’s not true?
We can see it in your eyes.
Come to the root of the root of your Self.
You came here from the presence of that fine Friend,
a little drunk, but gentle, stealing our hearts
with that look so full of fire; so,
come, return to the root of the root of your Self.
-Rumi (1207-1273)
Have a great week!
