Mother's Milk

I love these poems surrounding reflections on our Heavenly Mother. Beautiful and helped me feel so much closer to Her, not just my Heavenly Father and Jesus.

I am not a big poetry reader, I confess. But on the recommendation of several friends, I bought Rachel Hunt Steenblik's slender book of poems about her, and our, relationship with the feminine divine - who Latter-day Saints call our Heavenly Mother. It is a gem.Rachel is not a florid, wordy poet. Her work is spare, with the feeling that every word is carefully chosen to convey feeling, and she does. Her metaphors and comparisons go straight to the heart, and leave the reader longing to know the Mother who helped create us. This is a short book - but if you give each poem the contemplation that it sparks, it may take you quite a while to read it. You may want to leave it on your bedside table, as an addition to your family devotional reading.Rachel's work leaves me with a deep sense of peace. I very much recommend that you take a look at this lovely little volume.

Rachel Hunt Steenblik researched Heavenly Mother full-time for the BYU Studies article "A Mother There: A Survey of Historical Teachings About Mother in Heaven". Using that research, she turned much of what she discovered and learned into tender and thoughtful poetry. Mother's Milk is a collection of her poetry, inspiring and lovely. I first read it months ago when I bought her book as an ebook. I read it quickly. Devouring her words in the middle of a sleepless night. In the morning I read some of my favorites to Rand. They are poems filled with love--filled with the love for and of a Heavenly Mother. I recently bought myself a physical copy of the book. It needed to be on my shelf. Off my shelf. On my nightstand. In my hands. In my children's hands.

The Bible teaches that a man can comprehend the Father God he has not seen by knowing the earthly father he can see. The poetic gems in _Mother's Milk_ are the feminine equivalent of that idea: The poet turns to her Heavenly Mother for inspiration in mothering her own babe, while simultaneously understanding, through her shared experience of mothering, the feelings and accomplishments of her Heavenly Mother."In the heavens are parents single? No, the thought makes Reason stare! Truth is Reason; truth eternal tells me I've a Mother there." These poems, entirely consonant with the faith that teaches, however incompletely, that we have a Mother there, will put the reader in the place of that Mother's child. These poems do not entirely brush away the clouds that obscure Heavenly Mother from our view, but you'll begin to see her taking shape behind those clouds, as the poet suggests what you can know of Her by what you know of an earthly mother's love and care and guidance.

In “Mother’s Milk” Rachel Hunt Steenblik vividly captures the real moments of motherhood. This collection of tiny poems forms an important treatise of what it is like to be a mother and to be a daughter, and there are poems about a Heavenly Mother (a notion that was new to me, and that I really like). In reading this celebration of Her I am reminded of all that is holy in motherhood.I have two small children and when I think of motherhood in the abstract my initial thoughts are of being grumpy and handing out goldfish crackers. I’m tired and a little bitter, and these poems are a tonic. They remind me that motherhood is sacred, that I’m very blessed to be a part of it; and to celebrate and remember the many sweet little moments in each day.I feel happier and more peaceful after reading these poems. I cannot recommend them enough.

As a Mormon woman with some complicated feelings about Heavenly Mother, I was a little nervous to read this collection. I delayed for a little while. When I finally sat down with the book, I found Rachel's poetry so very gentle and warm. It was comforting to read. I think I read it all the way through in just a few sittings, pausing occasionally when a certain poem really struck me. And when I was all done, I felt the urge to write a few Heavenly Mother themed poems of my own. There are poems whose brilliance is intimidating and mind-boggling, and there are poems whose brilliance is inviting and approachable -- the kind of brilliance that makes you feel you have something worth saying, too. I'm grateful for this book that shares the latter form of brilliance so generously, and I'm grateful for the insights and pondering it inspired in me.

Good effort, but clearly written by a mother of young children. We are not infantile beings to our Heavenly parents, we were intelligent beings before coming to earth. To closely rephrase a quote from Talledega Nights- “He was a grown man, He had a beard.”I hope more writings from this author happen that show a mature parental/child relationship.

Hard to say how much I treasure this book, and Rachel's wisdom in it. She manages in these so-called "tiny poems" to say such a great deal. The epitome of poetry condensing vast truths and questions into small and simple phrases. Not only are the poems vital in conveying this search for a feminine divine, they are the most truthful expressions of what it is to be a mother to young children. They help me in my current days as a mother of a baby and toddler, to empathize with my children better - to understand their yearning which is similar to my own. Rachel articulates so many dimensions of the experience of motherhood, divine and earthly - but maybe those are arbitrary separations? Just magnificent. I will read it over and over again for the rest of my life.

Schöne Texte, die zum Nachdenken anregen. Tief ergreifende Gedichte und Verse wechseln sich mit witzigen und nachdenklich stimmenden ab. Eindeutige Kaufempfehlung für alle, die sich auf die Suche nach der Himmlischen Mutter (und auch einer besseren Mutter in sich selbst) machen wollen.