She buried her head into my neck and cried red, hot tears. She already feels the sting of life and we sit in her bed and bear it together. It might as well be the weight of the world. Joy unspeakable awaits her, but so does heartbreak. How do I tell her that this is only the tip of the iceberg? How do I teach her what I’m still trying to know?
I protect her and love her and I listen to everything she doesn’t say. She looks at me with eyes that know. She needs my truth and my story because her battles will be impossible sometimes. She will know loneliness and loss and betrayal. She will walk through fire and hard rain. She will know heights of joy she never thought possible and the depths of sorrows unspeakable.
This is what it means to be a woman—covered in roses and babies and secrets and pain.
So, I sit awhile and teach her to be a mother; to nurture and love and serve, to show kindness and mercy in a world hell bent on hate and greed and death.
I stay. I tidy up the room, but always I stay.
And she mothers me, too, in ways she’ll never know.
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You’re covered in rain
You’re covered in babies, you’re covered in slashes
You’re covered in wilderness, you’re covered in stains
You cast aside the sheet, you cast aside the shroud
Of another man, who served the world proud
You greet another son, you lose another one
On some sunny day and always stay, Mary
While the angels are singin’ his praises in a blaze of glory
Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place, Mary
She leaves her fingerprints everywhere
Everytime the snow drifts, everytime the sand shifts
Even when the night lifts, she’s always thereJesus said Mother I couldn’t stay another day longer
Flys right by me and leaves a kiss upon her face
While the angels are singin’ his praises in a blaze of glory
Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the placeMary you’re covered in roses, you’re covered in ruin
you’re covered in secrets
Your’e covered in treetops, you’re covered in birds
who can sing a million songs without any words
You cast aside the sheets, you cast aside the shroud
of another man, who served the world proud
You greet another son, you lose another one
on some sunny day and always stay
Mary
(Patty Griffin and Emmylou Harris)