May your 2010 have started wonderfully and may it get only better and better.
 

On the first Sunday of the new year, the lesson in my Relief Society (women’s meeting) was about the nature of God.  In the two and a half page lesson there were 28 pronouns and adjectives that act like pronouns--He and His.  This was no surprise.  As the teacher invited comments during the lesson, I raised my hand (as I often do) and stood up (as I often do) and said something like, "Sisters--we know that our understanding of just about everything is limited.  Our language is limited.  It is terribly important to me that everyone in this room be reminded that in actuality the Divine Source that brought us all here is surely a wonderful balance of both male and female." 

After the meeting a woman I didn’t know approached me and said in a whisper, "I’m so glad you said that.  I get so weary of everything being about men." 

A few days later I attended James Cameron’s blockbuster movie "Avatar," and as I watched the development of the story--the messages of anti-colonialism, anti-war, reverence for the environment--I knew that the deity of the Na’vi, these beautiful blue people of Pandora, was going to be presented as the Goddess.  Many will dismiss Eywa as a pagan nature goddess.  But to me, Her very pronoun makes Her profound and so appreciated.  She is one representation of the One that we all have lost, but the One that is deeply embedded in our collective unconscious and who emerges in the archetypes of popular culture. 

Some decades ago famed mythologist Robert Graves said: "The more than usually miserable state of the world demands that the supreme Godhead be redefined, that the repressed desire of the Western races for some practical form of goddess worship be satisfied."    

I loved it that Eywa, the great Mother Goddess in "Avatar," does not take sides but only works to restore a balance when balance is threatened.  Oh, how long has our world been out of balance, been unable to celebrate the divine dance of both God and Goddess.  And how devastating has been the cost. 

I watch for the signs of Her return.  A favorite on my list of movies that tap into the return of the Goddess is the brilliant "Mary Poppins."  Put it on your Netflix list and watch the Divine Woman float down from the skies via umbrella to heal the sad, Edwardian, patriarchal household of Mr. Banks. I wish I could make popcorn and watch it with you and point out in delight the several dozen places that play out the restoration of Divine Balance.  Watch the same theme in "The Secret Garden" and "The Sound of Music."

Our family needs its Mother.  How I yearn for the day She will be invited not only to the cinema but to church. 

 (If anyone doesn’t "get" what it’s like to be a female child in a Motherless House, see a little piece I wrote many years ago, posted now on the "Mormon Feminist Housewives" site.  It’s pretty dated, but does the job.  http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/?p=1041) 

Bless James Cameron for doing his part.  And speaking of bringing back the Mother-- 

ONE SKIN 

It is lovely to be nearly one skin
Not knowing quite where you leave off
And I begin. 

Like a watercolor
That runs the blues of sea and sky
Some mystic brush has been at work
Erasing lines, embracing spaces
Bordering us only by bliss. 

I want never again to know
Where you leave off
And I begin.

http://www.clpearson.com/personal_gifts.htm         
 

Dreary, rainy day here in Walnut Creek.  But on every dark January day I can glance out the window near my computer and watch the buds of my loved Magnolia tree slowly, slowly, slowly getting slightly bigger, then slightly greener, then showing a bit of pink--and then, right around Valentine’s Day--beautiful blooms, a love letter from Nature. 

And love to you too, from your friend,