A FORTUNATE SON
Today is my mother's birthday. A good day to wonder about the circumstances of her birth and how they shaped the girl she was, the woman she has become, and how that has shaped me.*
Apprenticeship to Love: Meditations for the sacred masculine on this crooked path
March 13, 2026
TODAY'S MEDITATION
There are simple things I can do to make life easier for myself and for those around me. One is a subtle change of my posture, how I present myself to the world. I tilt my chin, straighten my neck, and lift my heart to receive. That's enough. My posture changes me.
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Today is my mother's birthday. A good day to wonder about the circumstances of her birth and how they shaped the girl she was, the woman she has become*, and how that shaped me.
Her parents were refugees from Ukraine at another one of its many periods of crisis. How did that change her life, to be born to parents who experienced a Mennonite "golden age" in Russia, then the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Then the civil war of the 1920s. Then, the Great Depression of the 1930s. They knew how to fear for their lives. They knew how to protect themselves, how to survive. I'm not sure that the love they felt for each other and their children would translate today. Austerity takes many forms.
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What I know is that despite their austere (even chaotic in his case) upbringings both of my parents, in very different ways, were expressive of love, in their own and very different ways. It was always clear to me: I was born into love, and raised to give and receive love, by both of my parents. My father died several years ago. My mother still lives, and continues to be a source of support and inspiration in my life.
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I am far beyond survival and austerity. I am aware of standing on the shoulders of my mother. She, in her turn, stood on her parents' shoulders, shoulders that knew fear and flight and survival. In her quiet and tender way my mother opened herself as one who, tentatively, is a giver and receiver of love and light. She teaches me to see beauty, even when the world seems so unbeautiful. She teaches me to trust. To have faith. And to persist. She shows me with her open and quietly joyful heart how to be alive to this moment.
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Old habits persist. I am still afraid. But even afraid, I understand that I am so far beyond survival, the necessity of austerity, financial, emotional, and spiritual. I understand that I am powerful and magnetic. I know enough to allow myself to open, and that to open I must practice.
It isn't enough to inherit a legacy of survival, or even a legacy of love. My body is by the training of this culture by default wary. I am able to switch "closed" in less time than it takes to breathe this breath. To be fully open in my belly and my heart and my throat I need to practice. Daily. It is only through my practice that I experience a confidence and a depth and power to be trustworthy.
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Today I honour the gifts that come to me, like a river flowing. These gifts are many, often unnoticed and unappreciated. One is the gift of hearing when my beloved tells me that I am changed, that I don't need to protect myself anymore. That I can trust my "future self," as she calls this part of me that I am becoming. Another is the gift of my mother showing me how to live in faith.
I honour the flow of divine love and nourishment in my life with simple words and gestures. I become reverent with my posture. I honour this life and all the love and beauty that comes to me by holding my body open to receive. I honour my mother, my sisters and daughters and granddaughters, the men who are wise and compassionate, by remembering to trust myself, as they trust me. Happy birthday, Mom.
*My mother, Elizabeth Meyer, published her memoir, Coming Home, in early 2025. It took her a decade to write. Towards the end she invited me to edit. Another gift, to work with her in the final year of writing. I am a very lucky son.
TODAY'S INSPIRATIONS
🌀Once you've allowed this reaction [the primitive mind filtering all experience as "good or bad, right or wrong, safe or dangerous"] to show its version of what you're facing, embrace it as you would a frightened child, and within the authentic force of the embrace, consciously guide its inner conversation toward higher awareness...toward understanding...toward grace and courage.(Guru Singh)
🌀Cultivate peace first in the garden of your heart by removing the weeds of selfishness and jealousy, greed and anger, pride and ego. Then all will benefit from your peace and harmony. (Buddha)
🌀You're not like that now. (My Oracle)
