Mother's Day Degree

Jen Wainwright, Truth Triangle

BQ:  Dear Chaplain, please offer us your prayer.

(Chaplain takes a step forward and stands at the alter)

Chaplain:

          Now I lay me down to sleep

          I pray my sanity to keep

          For if some peace I do not find

          I’m pretty sure I’ll lose my mind.

          I pray I find a little quiet

          Far from the daily family riot

          May I lie back – not have to think

          About what they’re stuffing down the sink

          Or who they’re with, or where they’re at

          Or what they’re doing to the cat.

          I pray for a time all to myself

          (did something just fall off a shelf?)

          To cuddle in my nice soft bed

          (oh no, another goldfish – dead!)

          Some silent moments for goodness sake

          (Did I just hear a window break?)

          And that I need not cook or clean

          (well heck I’ve got the right to dream)

          Yes now I lay me down to sleep,

          I pray my wits about me keep

          But as I look around I know

          I must have lost them long ago!

BQ: On this meeting closest to mother’s day, we gather to remember the woman who bore us, and who has helped turn us into what we have become.  How can we forget what she has taught us?

Girls: Recite attached phrases , then retire

Lights down, enter with candles into formation (arch between alter and chaplains chair, facing East, mothers in East facing West – Queen is verse #1)

1) I see you working hard for me
And wonder what it means:
Whether I will do the same
And give up my own dreams

2) To offer someone else my world,
A stranger from my womb,
And say: Here, take my life,
So you, not I, can bloom.

3) I often wonder at the depth
Of that cool sacrifice;
I know it can't be "just because,"
Or simply to be nice.

4) It is so awesome, I can't think
How I could make that choice,
Except I see something in you
That gives my own heart voice.

5) I see sometimes a happiness
Amid the stressed-out day
That no one else can hope to know
In any other way.

6) I feel it when you look at me
And understand sometimes
That things I do, I do for two,
And then your hard life shines.

7) And when I give you grief, I know
That all the bitter pain
Between a mom and growing child
Is simply like the rain

8) That alternates with sunny days,
Passion without end,
While underneath is more of life
Than we can comprehend.

9) And then I know, perhaps, why I
Like you might be so moved
To give my life to someone else,
And know that I have loved.

Girls move into line, to recite “WE LOVE YOU” in order and flip matching letter cards.

BQ: (either before or after “we love you”)                                          

Close your eyes and wish for the one thing
You cannot do without, and when you do,
Near your heart you'll find it, always there,
Treasure that is dear but not so rare,
Held in the mesh that all your dreams flow through.
In truth, no gift more happiness can bring,
And so this day we give our love to you.

We may be like leaves upon the wind,
Each dancing towards our fated patch of earth,

Leaving in a gust of slanting rain
Or at some sunlit touch, our place of birth.
Vivid memories of life at home,
Early love, most vivid love, of you,
Your arms the world, your touch our organ tone:
One sea of bliss beneath all that we do,
Utmost, we hope to prove we will always love you

Girls retire, Queen and Sr. Lady present teddy bears wearing attached tags to mothers – all girls take one home for thier mother if she is not present!)

(Phrases for after Chaplains prayer.  Girls stand and recite sporadically)

I’m going to give you until the count of three…One…Two…THREE!

You had better wipe that smile off your face before I do it for you.

Just wait until your FATHER gets home!

I don’t know is NOT an answer!

NO.

Stop your crying before I give you something to cry about!

I’m not here to entertain you.

There is nothing for nice to girls to do after midnight.

If you don’t stop now, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week!

Wear clean underwear in case you get in a car wreck and have to go to the hospital.

I don’t care if Jimmy’s mother said yes…

I’m not just talking to hear my own voice!

Don’t put M and M’s up your nose!

Why?  Because I said so THAT’s why!