“I struggled, sure. Some say we lived hand-to-mouth, but it was really heart-to-hand. My son had love and laughter and a lot of good reading and poetry as a child. He enlarged my life. When asked what it was like growing up in the shadow of Maya Angelou, he said, ‘I always thought I was in her light.’”
—Maya Angelou on Being a Single Mom
In contemporary culture, a single mother household is viewed as incomplete; as if something is missing to make it whole. This program deconstructs that myth and raises up the beauty of single motherhood. It traces its antecedents in pre-colonial matriarchal societies, and empowers women who chose single motherhood or who come to it by circumstance.
Living Hand to Heart: The Self-Actualizing Single Mother Family names single motherhood as a rite of passage for women who choose protection and dignity over conformity and false security. According to the United Nations there are over 100 million single-mother families worldwide. As of 2023, 101.3 million single mothers live alone with their children. This is 8% of all households globally, and the number is steadily rising. Unified, we are a force of nature.
Co-facilitated by four women who are now or who were single mothers, this gathering proclaims the courage single mothers embody in their independence from traditional family structures. Massive social and environmental shifts, systemic defunding and fading educational values necessitate cultural and societal evolution. Single motherhood has, in fact, kindled women’s leadership in the inevitable restructuring of global family systems, family dynamics and parenting.
In the first of what we hope will become a series of intimate, authentic and resource-driven programs, four women, all part of the Mother of Medicine Movement, talk about their experiences and provide perspectives, supportive resources, and grounded strategies to thrive, evolve and be self-actualizing while lovingly raising children.
We address the practicalities and difficulties of legal challenges, rigorous schedules, and the holistic health needs that single-mothers juggle. We all live in a world of accelerating ecological challenge, threats to health and wellbeing, and a diminution of external educational options. Economic realities bear down especially hard on the average single-mother household. We offer models of creativity and innovation in the face of all this.
In Living Heart to Hand, you will experience:
*Resources to address the health challenges of single-mother life with Kristy King, MD;
*Supportive context and orientation for triumphing over the legal complexities of being a self-actualizing single mom with Dr. Allie Davis, creatrix of The Mother Tree Method;
*How to sustain embodiment as a single-mother, leading a self-actualizing household with Chloe Waretini, trauma therapist and developer of the Embodied Mother Approach; and
*Resources for regeneration and resilience that really work to impart joy and vibrancy for single moms and their children with Dr. Stephanie Mines, founder of Regenerative Health for a Climate Changing World.
Collaborate with Kristy, Allie, Chloe and Stephanie on building acknowledgment, community, support and recognition for the protective, self-actualizing single mother household.
Living Heart to Hand: The Self-Actualizing Single Mother Family is offered free of charge as a precursor to the online Mother of Medicine Summit, November 7-9, 2025.
When: Friday, September 26, Noon-1:30 Pacific. Registration is required to receive the Zoom Room. REGISTER HERE for FREE!
Questions? Email TheTARA.Approach@gmail.com