Kate's Magic Bead

A daughter asks a mother a simple question. The mother gives a simple response. Though mothers are sometimes distracted, busy or hurried they can some how sense that some questions which appear deeply simple and innocent are much more. My mother asked such a question of my grandmother when she was a young girl. She asked, "Mother, how do you know someone loves you?" My grandmother's response, "You give them the shirt off your back!"
At the time I'm certain my grandmother, who was often busy and distracted, did not realize that her answer would travel generations into the ears of my children... those words would also guide my mothering. There is never a time that I don't say to my children, as I take off my sweater or coat, "How do you know someone loves you?"
I thought of those simple words of wisdom and giggled to myself as I stood on my deck to escape the confined odor of my daughters poop. Of course the circumstance required a slight change to the answer... you know you love someone when you, day after day, wait for the bowel movement of a six year old and are thrilled when it comes, just so you can sift through it with a plastic fork and gloved fingers for a small magnetic, hematite bead ...you know you love them when at night, while they are sleeping, you gently lay your hands on their belly feeling for any tension, then you allow your hand to relax and send healing love in the hopes that her body will sense the love not the fear ...you know you love someone when three and a half days later your greatest joy, is the discovery of that magic bead in the smelly poop ...you know you love them when you feel absolute elation and celebration over the finding of a bead which you now realize has been blessed with the gift of traveling through this miraculous little being's body!
Kate's magic bead now sits on our altar to the Divine Mother. I pray often to my Mother, to my Ancestors and to Divine Mother energy for guidance... She never lets me down!