April 16, 2011
By Jean Tinder

I’ve been noticing something over the last weeks and months. It’s actually nothing new, but I’ve been seeing it with a broader and more personal vision. This “something” is the fact that the world around us very accurately reflects the world within us, and most of us understand this to one degree or another. I have also come to believe that this reflection can go both ways. In other words, by finding wholeness and balance within, we literally offer those same potentials to the rest of the world.

Something happened in my life recently that brought this home in a very pointed way. In this lifetime I have the privilege of being “mom” to four amazing people. Two of them are not yet grown and, for various reasons, live with their father and his partner. And, because they live far away from me, I’ve gone through many rounds of tears, pain, worry, and letting go around the fact that I only see them a few times each year. Even though I know they are thriving, my mother’s heart (i.e. “mommy aspect”) still frets and worries that I’m not protecting them, teaching them, helping them, or loving them enough. Continue reading →