Goodness Weekly 10.16.23
“Light
Light
The visible reminder of Invisible Light.”- T.S. Eliot
What’s Good:
You might not be able to see it from the street, but the concrete path for the Charis Park labyrinth has been formed and poured and includes a metal stamp of the park’s logo in the center. We imagine the labyrinth to be a place of rest and contemplation, surrounded by nature. We are so thrilled to watch this special place continue to come to life.
A Message from Mae
Mae Czarnecki, Sunset Ridge Collective Communications Coordinator
I have been a family photographer for the past thirteen years, specifically focusing on telling stories of motherhood. At the time I started my business, my motherhood story looked like staying home with my three baby girls that I birthed at home with no complications, breastfeeding for as long as I wanted to, and homeschooling. All while starting and running my own business.
Mae & Phoebe circa 2013
Sharing personal stories attracted clients (most often mothers) that related to that narrative and I started to create a community around my blog. However, the more like-minded women I connected with, I started to discover that my experience of motherhood was perhaps more unique than it was actually relatable. I met women with similar home birth plans who, unlike me, ended up in the hospital, or needed surgery to save their baby’s life and/or theirs. Mothers would enlighten me by sharing their struggles with tongue ties, SNS feeding, and formula woes. Mamas repeatedly reported their laundry list of shortcomings as reasoning behind why they weren’t homeschooling any more, or at all.
Two things were happening here.
One, these mothers felt the need to share exactly why their story looked different from mine for fear of judgment. What they’d read online or watched on TV told them that Motherhood looked a very specific way. To be anything different, even as a result of circumstances out of their control, was experienced as failure.
Secondly, my online persona was judgmental. In my young motherhood, my strong opinions came off as irrefutable fact. The women who hired me and followed me online had seen, rather often, my concrete stance on how to mother best and they felt belittled by my zero tolerance for experiences that strayed from that. And yet this was very much at odds with my deeply compassionate nature.
In the past decade, while experiencing all the joys of motherhood, my story has evolved in ways I never imagined for myself. I have moved on from the season of young motherhood that involved baby showers and naptime schedules. My calendar is now dotted with memorial anniversaries of little ones that were never held, and birthdays of teens I get to celebrate on FaceTime, sometimes all within the same week.
I often wonder how much more love and grace I could have shared in my younger years, had I held space for the vastness that our collective experiences of motherhood encompass. The soaring highs of hearing your baby’s first breath alongside the black depths of that cry never happening again or at all.
I’m grateful for the gifts of empathy and compassion I’ve gained through being drawn into other people’s stories. May we bask in the full spectrum of beauty the stories of our brothers and sisters expose when they share their light.
October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, which is a particularly special time to many parents in our community. If you or someone you know has experienced pregnancy and infant loss, regardless of your journey, know that we are thinking of you and you are not alone.
This Week
Tuesday, Oct 17th, 9am Good Acres Roundtable
Wednesday, Oct 18th, 4:30pm Sunset Worship Series
Sunday, Oct 22nd
4:30pm Chapel Worship
6-7pm Every Season Sacred (open to all parents of school aged children, dinner & childcare provided)
6-7pm Youth Group
Coming Up
Sunday, Oct 29th
4:30pm Chapel Worship
6-7pm Every Season Sacred (open to all parents of school aged children, dinner & childcare provided)
6-7pm Youth Group
Inhale:
When your light shines on me
Exhale:
May I appreciate its full spectrum
