II - Invisible Passion

“Wherever you are, be the soul of that place.” // Rumi

The familiar face of passion is well known. It is possibly overwhelming, intimidating and even anxiety provoking when we detect it in ourselves and our loved ones. The tidal wave of passion which can overtake and carry someone undaunted, to its own destination, is truly awesome. Passion’s capacity to manifest art, music, inventions and innovations which advance and transform our world are undeniable. The Leonardo da Vinci‘s, Thomas Edison’s, Jaques Cousteau’s and thousands of such instruments of passion have allowed us to progress to where we are today.

However there is a quieter, introverted, often invisible face of passion which we often don’t recognize. This passion is essentially the opposite of the flash, drama and trauma which may be associated with passion— the very connotation of the word. The idea of loss of control, being surrendered, used and carried by the larger force of the Universe to which our own soul is connected, is in itself threatening to our ego.So the quiet, invisible face of passion passes under the radar. It may even go unrecognised in ourselves since it is grounded in an unsexy approach not usually associated with the idea of passion. This kind of passion is grounded in surrender, dedication, devotion and sacrifice to a passion which may not be proclaimed or even named as such, even by the individual who succumbs to it.

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II after a 70 year reign has elicited a plethora of intense responses with an intensity which pays homage to her overriding passion—to serve her inherited position and role above all else in her life. Over the years of her reign many things have been said, reported, theorized and mythologized about who she was as an individual and the decisions she made which deeply affected the ones especially closest to her. However, the one thing that cannot be denied about Queen Elizabeth was her passionate dedication to her role as the monarch who saw Britain through the aftermath of the Second World War, the decline of the British empire, to the modern day in which her very position as monarch and its relevance is now hotly debated.

Queen Elizabeth II exemplifies the role of any mother who is passionately devoted to the well-being and growth of her child even when it means making unpopular decisions. Science and psychology have long presented undeniable evidence regarding the primary role of mother in her child’s life and the need for healthy attachment between mother and child from conception onward. An undeniable body of evidence proves that healthy attachment to mother is the psychological lifeblood of any individual’s life. Any child has been a part of its mother even before conception, as an egg when it was a foetus and merely a “twinkle in its daddy‘s eye,” and is inextricably bonded with its mother even as it’s birthed into this world. For the first two years of life children do not perceive themselves to be separate from mother. We teach separation.
So, healthy physical and psychological growth and maturation of a human being is dependent
on mother.

While the politics and experiments of the modern world may not agree, ancient wisdom traditions place mother next to God as the creative and life giving force in this world. So, what of passionate motherhood?It takes all the unsexy, unselfish, intensely focussed, dedication, devotion, attention, appreciation and sacrifice a woman can muster to raise a child in Love.