Motherhood- A Masterpiece That Never Quits

ERA I: Rooted in Hard Earth - Cahir, 1844 (“ a letter in the voice of imagining”)

Dear friends

Today’s letter blends historical imagination with sacred reflection, offering a sense of place, posture, and possibility of what my 3 x great grandmother Mary Martha in Cahir, 1844 as a young woman cloaked in hope, walking toward marriage and all that it would require of her.

The morning light spilled slowly over the village of Cahir in Ireland, brushing across limestone walls and chimney smoke, gathering quietly in the folds of Mary Martha’s dress.

She walked the lane toward the chapel, her boots skimming over earth worn by centuries of feet from pilgrims, labourers, wives and mothers like herself, not yet fully mothers, but carrying the seed of it.

Her hands were steady, though her heart pulsed with a quiet knowing this was not a fairytale beginning.

This was covenant.

Clay.

Bread broken in advance.

She had stitched her veil by candlelight, whispers of the Psalms in her memory;

“Establish the work of our hands, O Lord.”

There was no luxury, only intention. And yet, what richness.

John waited for her at the chapel doors, a man shaped by field and famine.

They stood with no grandeur, no trumpets just the priest, the sky, and the hush of something eternal passing between them.

They said yes.

Yes to children who might not live.

Yes to sorrow folded in with joy.

Yes to faith, not because it was easy, but because it was the only soil that held them.

And so, Mary Martha, you entered your marriage not as a girl with dreams, but as a woman willing to endure, to pour out, to plant love in dry seasons.

Your yes still echoes. It beats in my own bones as I navigate the soil of my own marriage, my mothering, and choosing to remain soft hearted in a hard world.

You said yes, and that yes changed everything.

🕯️A Reflection For You The Reader

Scripture for Contemplation:

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.”

Psalm 37:5

Reflection Prompt:

What was your first “yes” that changed everything?

Have you ever honoured the courage it took to say it?

Till tomorrow,

Lisa Raie xox