Mothers and Moonlight

On this Mother’s Day, many of us while honoring our mothers, will experience a sentimental moment when we recall special memories about our mothers during our childhood and beyond. But some of those memories will be as illusive as moonlight.

Moonlight at Merry Mount (May 5, 2023)

Mother

Your love was like moonlight turning harsh things to beauty, so that little wry souls reflecting each other obliquely as in cracked mirrors . . . beheld in your luminous spirit their own reflection, transfigured as in a shining stream, and loved you for what they are not. You are less an image in my mind than a luster I see you in gleams pale as star-light on a gray wall . . . evanescent as the reflection of a white swan shimmering in broken water.

-Lola Ridge (1873-1941)

Since a photo is “worth a thousand words”, I have compiled a selected family “photologue” that is intended to illuminate moments of joy.

Dorsey with sons Adam and Pat

Dorsey (right) with her mother Lucinda

Loretta with our children: Simon and Caroline

Loretta, as a new mother, comforted by her mother, Lura, and accompanied by her sister Paula and her daughter Shelley.

Four generations of Heinleins

Kris with her mother Julie and her three daughters Joy, Eva, and Asa.

Bedtime stories

Face to face with Asa

Jess flanked by her mother Debbie (right) and by Debbie's mother (left)

Connie Robinson Murphy with children Kiley, Dustin, and Emily

Paula Robinson MacMorran with daughters Shelley and Grace

Shelley MacMorran Mathews with her husband Dan and their children Charlie and Mary Beth

Consider this: our mothers at age eighteen were like Artemis, goddess of the moon, and on countless nights found themselves moonstruck.

Thou silver deity of secret night, Direct my footsteps through the woodland shade; Thou conscious witness of unknown delight, The Lover's guardian, and the Muse's aid! By thy pale beams I solitary rove, To thee my tender grief confide; Serenely sweet you gild the silent grove, My friend, my goddess, and my guide. E'en thee, fair queen, from thy amazing height, The charms of young Endymion drew; Veil'd with the mantle of concealing night; With all thy greatness and thy coldness too.

-Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

CPW

Thanks Rett! Happy Mother's Day