Connect with the birth, growth, change, joy, love and inner strength of mothering. Take a spiritual voyage through blessings, prayers, anecdotes and meditations about the sacred undertaking that is motherhood. These words of hope and healing, pain and promise, are for all mothers—traditional, single, adoptive, foster, step and bereaved—and are drawn from many faith traditions, including Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Native American. Special multifaith ceremonies offer ways to honor many aspects of motherhood, such as: becoming a new mother, either through birth or adoption; welcoming children into the larger community; and acknowledging the experience of weaning a child. Insightful and wise, the expressions in this soulful collection illustrate the paradox of motherhood and will speak to your heart as you see motherhood in a whole new—and holy—way. Contributions stem from both ancient and contemporary sources, and many contributions were written specifically for this book. Contributors: Maya Angelou • Dev Arjan •Isaac Babel • 'Abdu’l-Bahá • Sarah K. Bain • Winona L. Baker • Ellen Bass • Rev. Susie Crawford Beil • Big Thunder • Kathryn Black • Johanna Bodenstab • Emily Brontë • Martin Buber • DeLona Campos-Davis • Jane Welsh Carlyle • Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Rev. Linda Morgan Clark • Fr. Robert DeGrandis • Anita Diamant • Mary Douthitt •George Eliot • Saint Ephrem • Euripides • Kathleen Finley • Saint Francis of Assisi • Erich Fromm • Robert Frost • Saint Gertrude the Great • Kahlil Gibran • Maria Mazziotti Gillan • Stacey Goldblatt • Grace of Monaco • Hafiz • Leigh Hancock • Hanh, Thich Nhat • Fr. Edward Hays • Margaret Hebblethwaite • Jackie Heil • Sibilla Hershey • Lauri Hewitt • Rev. Gina Hilton-VanOsdall • Alicia Hokanson • Gerard Manley Hopkins • Jill E.Hopkins • Margaret Anne Huffman • Linda Lawrence Hunt • Crystal Hurdle • Jane Richardson Jensen • Saint John of the Cross • Julian of Norwich • Kabir • Hazrat Inayat Khan • Charles Kingsley • Laurie Klein • Jacqueline Kramer • Jean Baptiste Lacordaire • Fiona Tinwei Lam • Anne Lamott • Lao-Tzu • D. H. Lawrence • Dr. Donald Liebert • Rev. Lauren J. McFeaters • Rev. Dr. Henry McKeating • Lauren McLaughlin • Rosemary Bray McNatt • Maude Meehan • Amy Klauke Minato •Mirabai •Gabriela Mistral (pseudonym for Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga) • Janet Morley • Claire Rudolf Murphy • Sarah Napthali • Sister Nivedita (Margaret E. Noble) • Gunilla Norris • Theodore Parker • Christine Ryan Paulus • Margaret G. Payne • William Penn • Petronius • Po Chü-i • Jan Reynolds • Rivage (pseudonym for Mary Newman) • William H. Robinson • Christina Rossetti • George William Russell • Sappho • Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso • Meghan Nuttall Sayres • Edythe Haendel Schwartz • Ramprasad Sen • William Shakespeare • Trish Shields • Masaoka Shiki • Sadhu Sundar Singh • Mirabai Starr • Janeen Steer • Jonathan Swift • Rabindranath Tagore • Henry David Thoreau • Tukaram • Mark Twain • Miguel de Unamuno • Swami Vivekananda • Gloria Waggoner • Sophia Waldenberg • Jeanne Murray Walker • Robert E.Webber • John Woodroffe • Virginia Woolf