Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers...as well as all women who have been creative through other avenues, like poets, painters, potters, musicians, planters, and pet owners!

Bathing a newborn - unknown photographer 

My name is Barbara Booth

the daughter of

Mataley Mozelle,

the daughter of

Mozelle Booth,

the daughter of

Eugenia Almeda,

the daughter of

Eugenia Almeda, (yes there were 2!)

daughter of

Susan Elizabeth,

daughter of

Elizabeth...

This is my lineage of mothers. To their spirits I send wishes for Happy Mothers Day.

My grandmother Mozelle Booth and myself (maybe age 3). Grandmommy was a single mother most of her life, and supported herself as a seamstress, working mainly on society women's beautiful gowns for dances and weddings and other events in San Antonio TX. She made the coat, leggings and hat outfit for myself. It was tan wool with a brown velvet collar.

My Great Grandmother, after whom I was named. A cousin had been given her first name as her middle name, so when I came along, I was told, I received her maiden name. Later I noted that my grandmother had also had Booth as a middle name, so I didn't mind quite as much. Living in Texas until I was 8, I never knew a thing about John Wilkes Booth until moving to St. Louis and learning that he killed Lincoln, who had actually been pretty unpopular with the south. I have copies of letters from ancestors at the time he had been elected just before the Civil War...those Texans sure didn't like him. However, as an adult I've traced my Booth family lineage and find no direct connection to the Booths of theatrical fame, nor to the assassin, John Wilkes.

"Gummy" my grandmother (visiting from Houston TX), my father (her son), and my mother. This was our first owned house in St. Louis. My mother worked full time at the private school, Principia. My father did also. Gummy was a Christian Science practitioner, and greatly influenced my parents to bring my sister and myself to Principia, the Christian Science school grades K-12 and college in Elsah IL. It was a dedication which they gave us, and we never appreciated it as much as they hoped, both of us leaving the religion shortly after quitting college in our 3rd years.

"Dear Nan" Zulieka, my great grandmother on my fathers side, holding my father's sister who died young.

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Yearbook picture of my mother

Studio type photo with same hairdo of my mother

Two good friends who share day trips and conversations over coffee often, where our children, grandchildren and books are often the topics discussed.

My grandson Michael and Amanda who will be having their baby this October, my first great grandchild! So Amanda is also wished a happy almost Mother's Day.

And again, to offer wishes that all creative mothering energies are appreciated! Nurturing and creativity are not at all passive feminine acts. 

I am learning a lot about women's energies from "Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World" by Tyson Yunkaporta. The following is a quote from this book, from "Kelly Menzel, an Aboriginal woman from the Adelaide Hills (Australia) and keeper of ancestral Indigenous Knowledge. She is a nurse by Trade and a healer by vocation who is completing her PhD and working as a university lecturer." The question is whether to reverse the domesticated state as evident in our present society's way of defining women's and men's relationships.

This mother gifted herself with a fresh haircut for Her Day!