Thank you, Moms
by Melinda Bennington

Thank you, Moms:
The one who created me;
Who gave birth to and read to me;
Who held me;
Moms who helped me,
Who raised friends with whom I played,
Studied, and learned;
Moms who fed me;
Moms who asked good questions.
Thank you, Mum
Who raised the man I love, and
The ones who helped.

Thank you Moms
Who love
The children they’ve had
And haven’t.

Thank you, Moms
Who had babies with me,
Took turns with me,
Coaching, room-parenting,
Carpooling, and cheering,
being the parent there, in case;
Thank you, Moms,
Who kept one child while
I took the other to the ER,
Moms at the bus stop,
Moms in the neighborhood,
Moms at school.

Thank you, Moms
Whose kids had already
Had whooping cough and bothered
To tell me about the steamy shower.

Thank you, Moms
Who shared tapes and photos,
Called to say you were late to work, stuck
Driving behind my son going the speed limit;
Thank you Moms who really were
At the party;
Who prayed with me
For our children,
For their safety,
For guidance, for the right people
To be put along the paths
That are their own.

Thank you, Moms
Who raised peacemakers,
Teachers, rascals
And saints.

Thank you, Moms
Whose love surrounds those
On distant shores, in
Perilous places;
Moms who say:
You can do it
If you practice and work hard;
What’s plan B?
Tell me about it;
Be well;
Have fun!
I love you.

Thank you, Moms
Who say
It’s one more part of life;
What an adventure this has been.

© Melinda Bennington

Mindfulness requires no particular time zone or cultural beliefs. Research supports the benefits of secular mindfulness, as you’ll see below. It consists of contemplation, reflection, and observation. These universal human practices can improve concentration and, historically, have been employed in science, social relationships, leadership, diverse religions, arts, and many other areas of life. You may hear these discussed, but at its essence, as practiced in schools, and supported by research around the world, mindfulness is quite pure.

The secret is, it’s as simple as eating a grape. Or taking a shower. Or just breathing.

Mindfulness is practiced internationally. It’s taught in some California schools. Maybe that doesn’t surprise you :-D. But did you know there are also mindful public, private and charter schools in eleven other US states? Mindfulness is taught in Vancouver, Canada public schools. (See what kids have to say about mindfulness, in their own handwriting!)  There’s evidence supporting mindfulness from the program at the University of Massachusetts, where mindfulness research in the US started, to UCLA, to Australia’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program. It’s studied from the point of view of many disciplines – Education, Business, Medicine, and Neuroscience, among others.


Through Dr. Amy Saltzman’s Still Quiet Place curriculum training, I studied and interacted with mindfulness practitioners from around the world. I’m so grateful for this warm, professional international mindfulness community, which shares practices, resources, and experiences. SQP training helped me improve my skills in teaching mindfulness to children, and sustained my own mindfulness practice, in a wonderfully supportive milieu. It’s been such a treat! This week several of us (from Russia, Portugal, California) who completed class together had our own video-conference. We’ll meet again at another hour convenient for our Australian and Chinese colleagues, and elsewhere. 

There has been significant research in the last thirty years demonstrating that mindfulness practice can produce increased density in areas of the brain associated with learning, memory, and introspection, and decreases in areas of anxiety and stress. In addition, there is a greater sense of well being, and decrease in distress associated with pain and physical limitations. Mindfulness has been shown to be an effective tool with eating disorders, and can even increase our bodies’ antibody response to flu vaccine!

“Mindfulness training has shown preliminary evidence of efficacy in the  treatment of psoriasis, type 2 diabetes, sleep disturbance, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other conditions…” including eating disorders. Journal of the American Medical Association, 2008

In case you’d like to try it, (or just examine it), I’ll share some mindfulness resources from time to time.

For now, I’m just looking closely, breathing deeply, noticing…

😀