Welcome to the Gathering Pod, the audio version of my weekly gathering room broadcast. I'm Martha Beck.

And let us start the Gathering Room again. I missed last week. I think I was, I don't know, in the

bathroom or something, but it's so good to see you guys again. And you're taking time out of a holiday to spend with us on the

gathering room. And that holiday is Mother's Day. And for some of you, that's probably the most

wonderful day in the world. Your kids bring you pancakes in bed and you call your beloved mother

and you just have a powwow about how awesome mothers are

and motherhood. And for some of you, it's not a great day. Some of you don't have kids and you wish

you did and that sucks on Mother's Day. Some, all of you have mothers, but some of you wish you

didn't. You know, as they say in therapy, if it's not one thing, it's your

mother. And yeah, so if you didn't have a great mother, this day can be hard if she was like

me to you or whatever. And some of you were good enough mothers who think you're not good enough,

and then you feel that this day is a mockery of all your efforts. I'm in that

club, kind of, but I try not to be. Because I think that good enough is good, but here's the

thing. The reason that mothering is such an intense day, I mean, sorry, Mother's Day is such an

intense day is that there is no bond more deeply

wrought than the mother-child bond in all of human experience. And so if it goes just a little bit

twee, if it goes off to the side, it can be, it can like really impact us. And when it goes well,

when it goes perfectly, it's like heaven. It's like

in the whole world is a bounteous and wonderful place. If you always knew you were loved by your

very, very good enough mother. So my point here is that what is the very best can become the very

worst and what is the very worst can become the very worst, and what is the very

worst can become the very best. And this is not just true of mothering situations.

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