Mother’s Day and Mental Health

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the month in which we celebrate mothers. With that in mind, I am saying yes to several opportunities to talk about mental health from the perspective of a mom whose teens experienced significant anxiety and depression.

But first, I want to share A Blessing for Mother’s Day, by Kate Bowler, author, professor, and incurable optimist, whose words in Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved and No Cure for Being Human struck me deeply.

O God of love, it is such a joy to bless our moms—those who have carried us in their bodies, and in their hearts, and in their minds, and all those who have mothered us in some form or fashion.

We thank them and honor them all, those we can hug today, and those who are now gone or distant from us.

We ask Your blessing too on those for whom mothering is complicated, difficult, heartbreaking, or incomplete.

Bless and heal and restore and rebuild all generations, forwards and backwards in time.

God, with all the genius of Your creative power, rain down Your blessing upon the mothering we give, and that which we have received.

Be to us the nurturing embrace we need to lead us to eternal life.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

BeWell: The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors proclaimed May as Mental Health Month. As the Vice-Chair of the Behavioral Wellness (BeWell) Commission, I spoke about the importance of mental health support, shared the signs of depression, and urged people to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness. Thank you to Supervisor Bob Nelson and Supervisor Gregg Hart for initiating this resolution, and to our new BeWell Director, Toni Navarro, for her leadership.

PODCAST: Anita Rombough invited me to be a guest on Anita Chat and we talked about mental health, motherhood, perfectionism, self-improvement, and moving forward. Anita is a life coach for busy, growth-oriented, spiritually curious women that want to extract the most out of this short precious life and live in alignment with their soul purpose. Listen here or wherever you find your pocasts.

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