I’ve been thinking a lot about this word recently… and how it relates to being a mom. Sacrifice has become somewhat of a foreign concept for many of us… in fact many people feel that sacrifice is a negative thing- it means I will have to give something up- true. It also has these undertones of martyrdom: “I will give and give and sacrifice my own happiness…” or something along those lines. That is not sacrifice- it is play of the ego to be recognized and to be congratulated.
The word sacrifice means to make something sacred. It is truly the longing of the soul to sacrifice- to make this life sacred. I am a Sikh- and in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib which is the Guru of the Sikhs it says over and over and over and OVER again in many different poetic ways that “My soul and body are a sacrifice to you Oh Lord.” It is a feeling of pure devotion and longing- to give yourself fully to something; it gives purpose, it gives meaning- it gives happiness. When I was pregnant with my son, I read from the Guru everyday and every day I was reminded that my soul and my body are now a sacrifice to this child- my body has a sacred task…
“So long as this earth will remain, woman shall be know. Her breasts will always turn her own blood into milk so that her offspring can live. She will always generate in herself enough room that life can expand. She will open up her uterus so that life can come through her- all the way, to live and enjoy the splendidness of the universe. And she will go through all of those physical and mental changes just so mankind can exist.”
- Yogi Bhajan (Master of Kundalini Yoga)
When I first read this quote it nearly took my breath away because you feel the sacredness of woman, of mother… the real beauty of the sacrifice that women make every day… and yet in our society we talk about “yummy mummies”, maintaining our figure after child birth, how to get back your life after your child is born: GROSS!! Somehow we have seriously lost our way.
I was watching a talk show the other morning and they had on a woman who has written a book called “If women ruled the world.” And I thought to myself- Women DO rule the world; no human is born except through woman, women have the capacity to completely and totally change this earth- and not by running for president, not by being in charge of wall street… but by remembering that it can be as simple and powerful as sacrificing ourselves to the divine role of mother…
