I’m honored to share this Episode #42 of the Mother’s Quest Podcast, a special conversation released in conjunction with ALS Awareness Month with Mary Huffman. Mary is a wonder woman unlike any I’ve ever met, who relishes life with exuberance, and shares her love with everyone in her midst, even when facing the greatest of challenges.
I’ve known Mary and her family, her husband Ted, and her two children Anna and Jonny, for the last eight years, where we’ve been sharing one week out of every summer at a paradise known to us as Bruin Woods, UCLA’s alumni family camp in Lake Arrowhead, California.
But the last summer we came together, Mary arrived in a wheelchair, suffering from a mysterious set of symptoms which she later learned was a fast progressing form of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
ALS is a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder which has currently left Mary almost bedbound 24/7 . This diagnosis has been devastating, as you can imagine. But through it all, Mary has focused on trying to stay positive, continuing her life goal of helping others, and making memories with her family and friends.
In our conversation, we explore all the ways in which Mary has lived with grace, positivity and optimism her whole life, and especially since her diagnosis, when instead of falling into despair, she has determined to “Stephen Hawking the crap outta this,” cherish every moment, especially with her children, and find ways to live her legacy.
This conversation covers a lot of territory, including the inspiration of her mother, who taught her so much about helping people, a year abroad in Russia during the time of Gorbachev, becoming the first college graduate in her family and then continuing to Stanford’s business school, and her entrepreneurial endeavors creating adult coloring books to reduce anxiety, something she has learned to conquer. She gives us a challenge to commit to coloring each night before we go to bed to reap mental health benefits and invited us to contribute to her Master List of Life Tricks.
And of course we talked about her family…especially her husband and children who she adores.
It was such a blessing to have this conversation with Mary during a time when she had full use of her voice. And, although we didn’t know when we recorded that we would share it publicly on the podcast, we decided afterward that doing so could contribute to her legacy of helping others. And that, as you’ll learn when you listen, means everything to Mary.
Mary has so many lessons to teach us.. I hope you’ll leave this conversation, as I did, with a deep appreciation for living your E.P.I.C. life to the fullest, finding the ways that you can help others with a generous spirit, facing any challenge that life brings you with tenacity and optimism, and remembering as Mary and her son Jonny say that there is always rain before a rainbow.
I’m sending you and your family so much love Mary as we release this episode out into the world. I hope those of you listening will join me in sending positive thoughts and wishes.
Mary’s friend, Marcella Klein Williams.
The fast-moving form of ALS Mary has, the inspiration she takes from Stephen Hawkings’ legacy, and how she hopes the fast-moving version will become the curable one
The video “There’s Something About Mary” that her friends and family created for her and the custom “ALS Mom” and “Team Mary” T-shirts she and her supporters have had printed
The inspiration of Mary’s mother to help people and the many ways her mother and Mary have opened their homes and extended kindness to others
Mary’s approach to engaging with her children by spending time and listening to them, giving them permission to make mistakes, and helping them understand the ups and downs that come with life.
Her adventurous life path, including becoming the first in her family to attend college, a year abroad in the then Soviet Union, graduate school in business at Stanford, and management consulting abroad.
The ways Mary has built strong connections her whole life and a key piece of advice for how to handle criticism that has served her and her relationships well
How stumbling on a coloring book of her mother’s led her to co-create adult coloring books with a friend, and how coloring can have the same benefits as meditation
Mary’s experience battling anxiety and her strategy for defeating our “anxiety monster”
How Mary got started creating “Mary’s Tricks for Life”, and the “Master List of Life Tricks” that we can all contribute to
The E.P.I.C. snapshot moments that revolve around her children and why they mean so much
Mary challenges us to:
Try coloring 15 minutes each night before going to sleep. Check out the special coloring pages that Mary has created if you don’t already have your own favorites.
Mary’s adult coloring books available at Amazon.
The Coloring Book Zone where you can find Mary’s and other great coloring books. Use the code MOMISGREAT to get 30% Off.
You can help Mary with her ALS medical expenses at her gofundmepage.
UCLA’s Bruin Woods where I met Mary and I have spent one week out of every summer together with our families for the last eight years
Launched on Mother’s Day, my guest on the podcast, Graham Seabrook, and I invite you to create your own One Minute Mom Manifesto about what you want to claim or reclaim in your motherhood.
Use video, photos, poetry or any other form of your choice to express what matters most to you and share on social media using the hashtag#OneMinuteMomManifesto.
For more on the inspiration behind this idea, and why it’s so important that we claim and reclaim our whole selves in motherhood, tune into our episode on the podcast, link in the comments and at mothersquest.com/ep41-graemeseabrook
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Spring into Your E.P.I.C. Life Clarity Coaching Package
Spring is an amazing time to more fully seed the E.P.I.C. Guideposts in your life. I’m opening a limited number of one-on-one coaching spaces for a 90 day coaching package that includes bi-weekly hour-long coaching sessions where I will help you mindfully close the chapter of the last season, identify your vision for what’s ahead, set strategic action steps for moving forward, and provide inspiration and accountability along the way. Email me at julie@mothersquest.com to set up a free discovery call and learn more.
Virtual Mother’s Quest Circle Pilot
I’m excited to announce that the first founding Mother’s Quest Virtual Circle has been filled. If you’re interested in a future circle, and want to receive notice when the applications open again, please add your name to this wait list at http://mothersquest.com/virtualcircleapplication/
Help us Grow the Mother’s Quest Community
If you’re finding value from the Mother’s Quest Podcast and would like to get more involved, please join us in the Mother’s Quest Facebook Group, help us find more like-minded mothers on a quest by spreading the word and sharing your favorite episodes, and make a donation or apply to dedicate an episode. You can also share your story on the Mother’s Quest Blog.
Acknowledgements:
A big THANK YOU to our “patrons” for helping to bring these conversations to myself and other mothers through financial and/or in-kind support:
Desiree Adaway
Rachel Steinman
Katie Hanus
Denise Barreto
Sage B. Hobbs
Samantha Nolan-Smith
Jody Smith
Emily Cretella
Collette Flanagan
Titilayo Tinubu Ali
Carly Magnus Hurt
Lizzy Russinko
Suzanne Brown
Mara Berns Langer
Mallory Schlabach
Katharine Earhart
Jessica Kupferman
Jen Jenkins Dohner
Genese Harris
Tonya Rineer
Liane Louie-Badua
Cristin Downs
Erin Kendall
Niko Osoteo
Erik Newton
Claire Fry
Divya Silbermann
Rachel Winter
Caren and Debbie Lieberman
Cameron Miranda
Fran and David Lieberman
Debbie and Alan Goore
The Sustainable Living Podcast
Support the Podcast
If you’d like to make a contribution to Mother’s Quest to support Season Three of the Podcast and/or help provide coaching scholarships for mothers, follow this link to make a contribution.
If you would like to “dedicate” an upcoming episode to a special mother in your life, email me at julie@mothersquest.com
I’m so honored to bring you this special Mother’s Day edition of the Mother’s Quest Podcast with Graeme Seabrook, a woman whose recent writing on reclaiming ourselves in motherhood through a Mother’s Bill of Rights had me laughing, crying and cheering out loud. The moment I read it, I knew I wanted to have this conversation on the podcast.
Graeme is a Motherhood Life Coach, who bases her approach to coaching on the belief that you must be a priority in your own life in order to thrive. Following a traumatizing birth experience and postpartum depression, anxiety, and PTSD, Graeme began a healing journey as a mother and a woman. Believing that our global culture treats mothers as if we’re inhuman and expects us to be superhuman, she helps mothers reclaim our humanity through her work as the founder of The Mom Center, a social and coaching network for mothers, and through her speaking and writing.
In our conversation, Graeme shared generously about her life-long quest to become a mother, the disillusionment she experienced in her first months of motherhood, and how she reached out for support to reclaim her life, something she now pays forward by creating and holding space for other mothers.
We discuss the ways that living an E.P.I.C. life resonates for her, the E.P.I.C. guideposts in her life, and how the floodgates for impact opened as she crystallized everything she’s experienced and thought about into the “Mother’s Bill of Rights” with Ten Articles which I think are revelatory: a mother’s right to Personhood, Privacy, Space, Care, Voice, Respect, Name, Dreams, Desire, and Visibility.
In time for Mother’s Day, I hope this conversation inspires you to examine your own truths and that you’ll record and share with us what you uncover using the hashtag #OneMinuteMomManifesto. It’s a co-created challenge, and a Mother’s Day Gift to you, from me and Graeme…an invitation to you for nothing less than a reclamation of your whole SELF.
Desiree Adaway of the Adaway Group. Sign up for four weeks of reflection, discussion, and sisterhood through Desiree’s upcoming Sister Summer – a 4-week writing intensive. And learn to become a force for freedom –for your liberation and the liberation of others through the Freedom School.
A challenge co-created by me and Graeme in honor of Mother’s Day to invite you to create your own one-minute manifesto about what you want to claim or reclaim in your motherhood. Use video, photos, poetry or any other form of your choice to express what matters most to you and share on social media using the hashtag #OneMinuteMomManifesto. Visitwww.facebook.com/MothersQuest for more information and inspiration. Help us reach our goal to inspire the creation of one million of these Mom Manifestos!
Dedicate an Episode of the Mother’s Quest Podcast
On this special Mother’s Day edition of the podcast, I want to honor my own mother Fran Lieberman, my mother in law Anne Neale, and the matriarchal ancestors that came before us, both biological and those as my guest Graeme Seabrook says we claim for ourselves.
I invite you to take a moment in honor of Mother’s Day to think about the mothers who have impacted you. And if there’s someone special you’d like to dedicate an upcoming podcast episode to, send an email tojulie@mothersquest.com. I’d love to hear your story and share how you can tell it on the podcast.
Spring into Your E.P.I.C. Life Clarity Coaching Package
Spring is an amazing time to more fully seed the E.P.I.C. Guideposts in your life. I’m opening a limited number of one-on-one coaching spaces for a 90 day coaching package that includes bi-weekly hour-long coaching sessions where I will help you mindfully close the chapter of the last season, identify your vision for what’s ahead, set strategic action steps for moving forward, and provide inspiration and accountability along the way. Email me at julie@mothersquest.com to set up a free discovery call and learn more.
Virtual Mother’s Quest Circle Pilot
I’m excited to announce that the first founding Mother’s Quest Virtual Circle has been filled. If you’re interested in a future circle, and want to receive notice when the applications open again, please add your name to this wait list. julie@mothersquest.com
Help us Grow the Mother’s Quest Community
If you’re finding value from the Mother’s Quest Podcast and would like to get more involved, please join us in the Mother’s Quest Facebook Group, help us find more like-minded mothers on a quest by spreading the word and sharing your favorite episodes, and make a donation or apply to dedicate an episode. You can also share your story on the Mother’s Quest Blog.
A big THANK YOU to our “patrons” for helping to bring these conversations to myself and other mothers through financial and/or in-kind support:
Support the Podcast
If you’d like to make a contribution to Mother’s Quest to support Season Three of the Podcast and/or help provide coaching scholarships for mothers, follow this link to make a contribution.
If you would like to “dedicate” an upcoming episode to a special mother in your life, email me at julie@mothersquest.com