Mothers & Mothering

  • “Mummy, I Hardly Knew You”

    I was talking to a dentist friend who remarked on my mother across the room that she had dentures, he could tell.

    I suddenly realized not only did I not know this about her – but so much else!

  • “Zen (and Not)”

    Lucien Stryk says of Zen: "to use the fewest … strokes of the brush to express their feelings."

    In that case, my paintings – now – are certainly Zen: very few strokes, so many only one.

    But, to go further: what feeling to express?

  • “The ‘Magical Event’ of My Mother’s Passing”

    In my meditation this morning, this was given to me:

    It was Magical
    to be with my mother
    as she passed over.

    Magical:
    the Awareness
    of the Supernatural Power
    that ever bound us
    – and ever will.

  • “Little Boy Lost – and Found”

    On a busy street the little boy has lost his mother. He runs towards one mother – then stops because she’s not her. And then another. And another. Becoming ever more desperate.

    And then he sees her and runs to her – arms open, smiling.

  • “Grateful Thoughts on Tolstoy’s ‘The Kingdom of God is Within You'”

    I rest all of my work on what could be called a personification, a domestication, of Tolstoy's "kingdom of God." Here is how he ends his great treatise.

  • “The Two Kalis”

    Within each of us there are two Kalis – the mother of fear and the Divine Mother of Love. The holiness of Sri Ramakrishna was that he came to Know only Her.

  • “The Drum Is Your Mother”

    Not only is music associated with The Mother, with our mothers – but especially so is the drum. Marija Gimbutas, drawing on her most extensive analysis of the signs and design patterns that appear repeatedly in the cult objects and painted pottery of Neolithic Europe, writes concerning the Goddess and music about "the intimate relation between the drum and the Goddess."

  • “The Pulse, the Mother, Music and Water”

    My soul is an enchanted boat.
    Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float
    Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing.

    – Shelley

    The pulse, the mother, music and water. Let's see if we can draw all these together. When we think of the word pulse, words invoking fluidity come to us like blood, flow, and waves. One of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) definitions of pulse is "the rhythmical recurrence of... undulations." It gives this illustrative quotation: "like the pulse of the flowing sea."

  • Video: The Re-Mothering Experience

    Dr. Diamond discusses the powerful therapy of Re-Mothering and his classic book about it. The book can be purchased here.

    See more videos by Dr Diamond on his YouTube channel.

  • Video: Everything Is the Mother

    Dr. Diamond discusses how everything in our lives relates unconsciously back to our mothers and the start of life. One in the “Mothers and Mothering” series of videos.

    See more videos by Dr Diamond on his YouTube channel.