Everyone deserves a safe and happy nest.

From the moment I stepped out of my front door to get coffee across the street at the local market, I was looking for inspiration for this Mother's Day newsletter.

It came in the form of the #19 bus and the handful of mothers and fathers holding their children's hands they crossed the street on their way to school.

Stop, look and listen before you cross the street. Use your eyes, and use your ears, and then use your feet.’

I had learned this rhyme in kindergarten a half a century ago, and suddenly my brain was on rewind, my heart was in control, and I could see ‘mothering’ is all around me.

All I had to do was stop, look and listen.

Just as suddenly I missed the days when my little ones reached for my hand to cross the street, and the second cup of coffee in my left hand (a long-shot of espresso) made me want to run home and tell George how grateful I am to have shared my life with him. I missed my mother, father, and siblings, and even the dogs that I have said good bye to -- all this in a matter of moments just looking for inspiration to share with my 'people'.

Mothering, I think, is a state of mind, like the one I slipped into this morning when I could see just how precious all of life is. Some of the best ‘mothers’ I know are not biological parents or women, but people who live their life with an open heart and a willing hand. It knows no gender, age, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

Mother’s Day began with the mission of honoring our individual mothers for all they do for us, and also as a peace movement. I think I created Nesting Days for the same two reasons.

I hope you will take a minute to read it, open your heart, think of your Mom, pat yourself on the back for all of the 'mothering' you do, and have a very... Happy Mother's Day!

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten -- by Robert Fulghum

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten. ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:

The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.

So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

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