Mother Day weekend I was on a conference in Freiburg, Germany and spent some time at this gorgeous monastery in the Schwarzwald. Their abbey has been a former villa in the Tuscany style which was donated to them. 

I walked through the gardens, tasted the herbs, enjoyed the warm sun and sang with them during evening prayer. It was very serious sung, some parts even in Latin.

So I was surprised to be invited afterwards to also stay for their May outdoor compline (the night prayer) after dinner: the sisters sat around a fountain which brings fresh water from the Black Forest, chatting and giggling. We sang the night prayer interrupted by some food sharing and talking and again giggling. 

Also the birds sang their evening prayer. And when ever we sang they answered loudly and beautifully. 

Some think opposites do not go together. But just as the sisters know how to be earnest and fully vital at the same time I do think we also need to embrace the sorrows in-midst of our striving for a good life. 

Though the world tells us to have a "happy" mothers day year after year how can it be happy without embracing the losses and heartbreaks it brings for each of us? How can we cultivate an attitude of remembrance by only sharing happy tweets? 

Aren't mothers the teachers the world need? Teaching the art of happy pain and earnest joy, of letting go and start a new, of forgiving and fighting, of giving life and set it free?

So let yourself feel embraced
by those impressions of sisterhood
giggling and remembering the same time,
echoing the birds under the sky and
struggling towards inner peace
every day again.

Peace and love to you!