“This book will change your life. I refer to it regularly.” (Christiane Northrup, MD New York Times bestselling author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom)
"If Amy Sedaris wrote obsessively about the Divine, this is what she might sound like. What a treat." (Darren Main author of Yoga and the Path of the Urban Mystic and Inner Tranquility)
"A fun, fresh spiritual tune-up. Reading it is a like taking a bicycle ride or sitting by the stream and suddenly feeling like everything is just deliciously okay. Tosha Silver has a beautiful, believable, honest voice, and she is a delightful companion.” (Tama Kieves best-selling author of Inspired & Unstoppable: Wildly Succeeding in Your Life’s Work!)
"One of the best books we've ever read! My wife Hollie and I are huge fans of Tosha Silver. She delivers inspiration on every page!" (Robert Holden author of Holy Shift!)
"In a marketplace filled with lackluster spirituality books, this book sparkles with truth. Through touching personal stories, potent insights and holy humor, Tosha Silver reminds us that the only way to truly live is hand in hand, heart to heart, and hip bump to hip bump with the Divine." (Sera Beak author of Red Hot and Holy: A Heretic’s Love Story)
"Tosha Silver’s benevolent, heart expanding book will transform you mightily with the greatest of ease." (SARK Artist Author, Succulent Wild Woman PlanetSARK.com)
"This book offers readers a highly unusual gift – a way to release the exhausting pursuit of the ego’s wishes and dreams, a path to living with joy, peace and contentment. Start down that path and miracles begin to happen beyond anything you could have predicted!" (Marci Shimoff #1 New York Times bestselling author of Happy For No Reason, Love For No Reason)
“The holy grail is right here in this gem of a book. Tosha Silver's wisdom goes down as easy as a mint milkshake and leaves you feeling so free you'll want to do cartwheels on the beach. But don't be fooled by the simplicity of this message. Look no further for an easeful path to enlightenment infused with rapture and hope, which comes as much needed medicine for the soul.” (Lissa Rankin, M.D. New York Times bestselling author of Mind Over Medicine)
"Tosha Silver is an empathetic guide along the ever-present seam between the everyday and the sacred, letting us know that we can pull a thread of aliveness for ourselves at any time." (Mark Nepo author of The Endless Practice and Seven Thousand Ways to Listen)
“This playful, enlightening, and creative collection presents the author's experiences with the Divine.” (Spiritualityandpractice.com)
Outrageous Openness Chapter One
SEEING THE WORLD AS YOU
R U My Mother?
Don’t drink at the water’s edge, throw yourself in. Become the water. Only then will your thirst be quenched.
—Jeanette Berson
Years ago I became fascinated by an adorable book called Are You My Mother?, the tale of a baby bird searching the world for its home. I wasn’t exactly part of its target audience of teething toddlers.
But because I live at the mercy of an endlessly metaphorical mind, the book held an unexpected appeal. As a lover of the Divine Feminine, I read it as a story of the Goddess glimmering in everything. Whether it’s Guadalupe, Durga, Lakshmi, Quan Yin, or what in India would be known reverently as the Shakti, I can’t help but love the Mother.
I thought how most of us run from spot to spot perhaps unconsciously seeking Her everywhere. We restlessly scan the world saying, “Is this my destination? Can I lay my burden down now? Am I safe? Can I finally let go?”
Yet some part of us knows that no person or place in this galaxy of impermanence can ever fully give that refuge. Everything comes and goes, even that which feels the most familiar. All eventually melts back into the ocean of existence like the iridescent multicolored sands of mandalas.
Amidst this endless phantasmagoria of change, it’s possible to learn to rest upon the Divine like a life raft in deep water. From the One all things emanate; to the One all things return. Rather than cling to each individual illusion of safety, the mind can learn to find the Divine and Her protection in every situation.
It’s tempting to try to make a particular job, livelihood, or relationship our salvation. Then we quickly become the slave of whatever we grip the most.
But when you make the Divine your Source, you move through life with an ease and lightness, with an open hand. You allow whatever wishes to come, come. And whatever wishes to go, go.
Every gain, and loss, has an odd kind of Providence.
So everything and everyone can indeed become . . . your Mother.