soil and saints---an ecological liturgy: Mother's Peace Day

When Mother's Day was born in 1870 it came out of a long history of women organizing the suffrage and peace movements. Originally called Mother's Peace Day we give our mothers gifts of flowers, crafts and cards to remember the gift of women's voices in the world. Here are the words of Julia Ward Howe the conceiver of Mother's Day in the United States. She was a wild and fierce activist with her lady friends at the Seneca Falls Convention and one of the leading organizers for the Women's Suffrage Movement and all environmental peace. Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870 Mother's Peace Day:

{"Arise then...women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts!

Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly: "We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,

For caresses and applause.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

We, the women of one country, Will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosum of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

Blood does not wipe our dishonor, Nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home For a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace... Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God - In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality, May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace. Wouldn't it be wonderful if on some distant Mother's Day, the wishes of Julia Ward Howe could be fulfilled and the human race could celebrate a day when, all over the world, no mother would have to mourn the death of her child lost in war or terrorist attacks... To all of the mothers whose children are fighting in wars - and to mothers whose children are growing up with wars raging around them or with terrorism threatening their safety... Wishes of strength, peace and hope for this Mother's Day...}

Julia Ward Howe organized with women and men of all ages for the right for women to vote. This year is the 90th year celebration of the 19th Amendment, a passing that took over 70 years. The ladies who passed away before they could vote include Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and many many others.

To my mother and all the mothers around the world
the mothering that has come before us and the Mothering yet to come,
we are in deep gratitude for all the love, courage, hope, peace, beauty, and imagination you bring into the world. thanks for teaching and raising us all into better mothers.

Happy Mother's Peace Day. <3>