Well the holiday season is upon us… We’re sharing love with our families, mourning the loss of friends and family who we remember particularly at times like this, dealing with sick children on Christmas day, managing moods, feeling lucky, feeling disappointed, feeling excited to see the holidays through our children’s eyes… it’s an action packed, emotional time of year.

Soon we’ll be ringing in 2012 together. Some will enter cheering, others kicking and screaming. But we’re all going there together one way or another. May as well share a toast, ask for a shoulder to lean on if you need one, do our best and hope for the best.

The holidays have prompted me to write a “holiday-inspired” post on my Moms Rising blog which you can find here. (If you haven’t heard of Moms Rising, they’re very cool. Check out what they’re fighting for on the behalf of women and families.)

I hope all your holidays are special and meaningful and I’ll see you in the New Year!

Cheers!

(Harper as jolly old…)

 

Erin Marra over at Lovesomeblog.com posted a really nice piece about Momma Love and expressed a question I’ve heard many times now. WHEN IS THIS BOOK COMING OUT?? Let me assure you I’ll shout it from the highest hills when it’s out. It’s definitely been a long, really great journey, during which the book has become much stronger and better, so I’m glad for the time it’s had to simmer.

Check out Lovesome here.

The Museum of Motherhood makes it it’s mission to spread the word about how mothers are living and have lived their lives throughout history. In keeping with that goal, they recently honored me with a piece about Momma Love.

I recently met an amazing woman named Jessica Shyba. It just so happens, she writes a very successful blog that chronicles her relocation from the suburbs to NYC with her husband and two beautiful kids. Suburban to urban mom is a move I’ve been hearing more and more about lately.

Jessica is one of the moms I’ll be talking to and photographing for my Momma Love book project. She honored me with a very cool mention about the Momma work, and about my work photographing mothers in prison, on her blog this month! You can read her piece about it here.

Momma Love is not only about the love a mother shows. It’s about the love she is shown, by herself and the world around her.

We all feel an undeniable pull toward our mother’s love. If the bond between you and your mother was strong and healthy, it created a space of unparalleled safety and comfort for you. If it was distorted or missing, you’ve probably spent a lifetime coming to terms with that fact, seeking it out or letting it go. Either way, mother love is profoundly symbolic and powerful—so much so that entire religions, mythologies, and classic works of literature are built around either the sanctity or the destructive power of it. Societies need “Momma Love” in order to survive, but very often don’t know how to take care of it properly.

The details and rituals of motherhood largely go unnoticed and are taken for granted. They are talked about among mothers in private places—in toy-strewn living rooms, in kitchens, or over the phone while a child throws a tantrum on the floor nearby. To an outsider, motherhood seems like a profoundly important secret society, one that I started this project to understand more fully.

Each woman I photographed for this project has the truth of her experience to offer. In creating this book I have attempted to bring a community to light, creating a patchwork-quilt of advice, empathy, reflection, commiseration, opinion, anger, assurance, and love. In order to nurture healthier mothers and a healthier society, honest conversations about the realities of motherhood and how mothers are treated are necessary.

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If you have your own MOMMA LOVE story to share, please share it here! Maybe your story will become a part of the project. (Nothing you write will be used without your prior permission)

And stay tuned for updates on the release of this book.