The Holy Trinity

When we all got together for May's birthday, she gave me a present- the picture you see above. She found it at a Goodwill and knew how much I'd love it. It's hanging beside my bed now with all of my special treasures. Madonnas and Fridas and some charms which have been made for me with love.
But I rearranged things to make room for that.

When I tell you that one of my main influences in how I tried to be a mother to my children was Flo, a chimpanzee mother that Jane Goodall studied and wrote about, I am not being flippant. It's true. And I think that may be a picture of Flo and her then-youngest baby with a male whose identity I am unaware of.
I don't know. It doesn't matter. The love between all of them is apparent.

To me, that picture is as beautiful and telling and profound as any artist's rendition of the Madonna and child. Of any portrait of any family. The mother cradles her baby and kisses her. The male holds them both. The mother's gaze on the child is as pure as any human mother's gaze on her infant. And the hands. All of the hands, holding each other.

And May knew that I would feel exactly this way about the photograph. She knew because she knows me, because she knows that I think this is a representation of what holds the universe together.
Quite literally.

You can have your Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

I'll take the chimpanzees holding each other close in adoration.

Thank you, May. I love you. I love you like that mama chimp loves her baby.

Always...Mama