OneMama Celebrating the Mama Spirit

I opened the windows and threw open the curtains so I could let the fresh, rainy air fill our living room. As I walked back to the kitchen, I saw my five-year-old daughter under the kitchen table. I squatted down to meet her gaze, “What are you doing under there, love?” She looked up from her game, “Making a village,” she whispered. It was no longer a kitchen table as far she was concerned – dishtowels had become baby beds; food containers had become furniture; her arms were no longer those of a child, but arms of a mother as she rocked her doll back and forth. Two weeks earlier, I had arrived back from New York City with that same doll in my arms. I had brought back for my daughter and my three-year-old son OneMama Dolls as gifts from Siobhan, OneMama.org founder. She wanted them to have one as a thank you for sharing their mama with her at the Unite Nations for a week. The OneMama Dolls are precious dolls and a favorite among OneMama supporters. The doll is clothed with black and red fabrics, her hair twisted tightly and tied off with a red ribbon, and wrapped around the doll is a small baby slung to her back.

The impact of the Mother Spirit is ever-flowing and continually growing.

As my daughter rocked the dolls in her village, it captured so perfectly the generational impact of the Mother Spirit. I, a mother who is helping other mothers through my work with OneMama, am now passing this work down to my daughter through the caring of this OneMama Doll and the constant conversation around it. Just as Siobhan took the loss of her own child and, through her mothering spirit, transformed her pain into the nurturing of other mothers and their babies with OneMama.org The impact of the mother spirit is ever-flowing and continually growing. The Mother Spirit is kind-hearted. It flows through all of our team members and collaborators because they are attracted to this nurturing energy and this work to support mothers resonates with them. Even our name goes forward with an endearing force. The care-giver. The close companion. The mama. The Mother Spirit is the thread of everything we do, everything we work for, and all the people we attract to us. It is sweet connection. It is nurturing. The mamas we care for and the next generation after that and the one after that. The mama spirit lives on, just as OneMama will. As Mother’s Day approaches and the world has their focus pointed towards mothers around the globe OneMama.org joins in on the celebration by taking this opportunity to honor all the Mother Spirits on Earth.

We honor the mothers who have lost a child. We honor you and make space for your pain on this day.

We honor the moms who birthed a baby so another family could mother the child.

We honor the mothers who wake up everyday and care for their children with patience, compassion, and love (even on the hardest days)!

We honor all the mothers that have become mothers through adoption, marriage, or non-traditional circumstances.

We honor the people who have come from broken homes and have had to mother themselves all these years.

We honor the mother spirit in you.

We honor the family friend or the mentor who played a mother role in the life of someone they love.

We honor the pet-mamas who care compassionately for the animals of this world.

We honor the dads who play both father and mother everyday.

We honor the mothers who have yet had a baby placed in their arms.

We honor all mothers around the world. We celebrate you today...and everyday.

My daughter was making a village under the kitchen table on that rainy day, and at the center of her creation was a mother soothing her baby. Let our world-village celebrate all Mothers and Mother Spirits in all the work they do to make the world a better place.