Catchlight

Kristin Geiser

If a spiritual life is to be real –
authentic, courageous, tidal –
then it will, by definition, depart in some nuanced way
in some moments
from the one your church
or your family
has offered.

And if you are raising children,
you are inviting them into something
that you are on the cusp
or the midst of
rethinking
reconsidering
remembering
reimagining.

As you experience your own departing and creating
and the offering of something to your children,
you may notice
a sense of worry
and relief
as they improvise their own spiritual life.

And yet these conversations often remain underground.
whispered in backyard book clubs,
or grocery store parking lots.
We learn to keep the words hidden
because they don’t sound like the narratives of Good Christian Mothers.

Perhaps we need a new conversation
to bring new possibility,
capture the catchlight
of mothering
as holy improvisation
and transform our notion of
good.