A Letter to Mother — What Would You Write to Yours?

“All houses are dark until the mother wakes up,” is widely attributed to the writer and poet Kahlil Gibran, whose poignant observation captures that first, essential light: the warmth of a mother.

For me, that same light was my first and most profound teacher in the art of storytelling. Before I ever set foot in a war zone, tracked down a rare species through a sacred forest, or sat inside a desert tent to record the oral histories of tribal elders, I was first an apprentice to a great mentor, my mother.

In a home where the disciplined genius of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach — a part of our lineage — would fill the air with timeless music, along with the distinct floral scent of freshly-cut flowers from a lush garden thriving in a desert, mother would regularly conduct a quieter symphony of creation and compassion for us, the family.  

“Even the spider who visits us, has a story,” she would say, as she welcomed yet another creature into our home.

Taking my small hand in hers, we drew a multilayered masterpiece: an entire, sprawling amusement park that hung on our wall for years. It was a world she envisioned, but insisted I help build with my own colors, some of which made no sense (such as a pink sky).

And as our family grew, so did the park. With each new family member, we would together add another child to the scene; the landscape expanding joyfully to hold us all.

That evolving mural was my first lesson in what I now call “archival storytelling” — a living document, a collective memory, a piece of art that grows to include everyone and preserves a family’s history and its many stories in real time.

This, to me, is the heart of the nurturing principle we explore in this issue that is not just dedicated to mothers, but fathers as well, family members and friends, and even the pets that are there for us and being “motherly” in their own ways.

That “mother light” is not just a title, but a tender, potent force found wherever love chooses to tend, to mend, and to awaken beauty and kindness in another. 

It is the same force that compels us to protect the forgotten, the weaker and the abandoned. 

In these pages, we celebrate that wakeful, creative nurturing spirit in all its forms. Discover the diverse ways artists and creatives celebrate the universal theme of “Motherhood.” 

So as you explore the pages, may you find echoes here of your own first mentor, first teacher, or artist — the one who turned on the light, and taught you how to paint with it.

With gratitude, thank you mother for always being that guiding light, in the darkest of hours, and even with the sun fully shining. 

Hope you enjoy our latest collection of enriching stories, and may it inspire you to think about what letter you would write to your mother — perhaps one that is long overdue.