I recognize that me finding my own path and my way in the Catholic Church worshiping the Divine feminine has been the work of 40 years and that (for better or worse) I’m setting my daughter on a similar path. Attending a Catholic grade school she will learn God is a father, our bodies aren’t to be trusted and obedience to external authority is to be prized. She will also learn about community and ritual, the sacraments and the saints and the social justice commitments of the church, which keep me here.

It is the first group of lessons that I need to begin to inoculate her against and very soon. And I want to do it in a way that isn’t schizophrenic for her.

So this morning as I was lighting the incense on my altar to the goddess she asked to help. I said yes, and she asked which goddess. For the first time, I just said The Goddess, the Great Mother, the one who includes all of the others. We went through a few more questions and I give a few more responses and we got to our own tradition.

We started talking about deities and got to our own Catholic tradition around the time I was putting my socks on. She wondered aloud as to why we only had one. I asked her who she thought benefited when we solely pictured God who was white, male and older. She answer correctly – old white dudes.

Moving into the kitchen for cereal I told her not to worry, the goddess is a part of our tradition, even if she does hide a bit. I leaned over the island and asked where she could be hiding.

The look of pure delight in the most obvious secret came across her face. I will never forget it. She rightly names Mary. I confirmed and explained – of course the Blessed Mother is a goddess. The mother of God must be a Goddess herself. And then I said also, Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ companion, his beloved friend, the first disciple. The Goddess hides there too, keeping balance between male and a female.

I think I might have just done it. I think I might have just cracked open the way for her to connect all of the things that we do at home and all of the ways that we are at church. Of course I told her that a lot of people wouldn’t agree. If she felt like she wanted to tell someone and they disagreed to leave it to them and she need not argue with him.

It all felt very right. Today is Mayday, the crowing of Mary and celebration of Beltane. Earthly abundance and sensual delight. Brushing her hair she lit up when she told me, she would be one of the children crowing the Blessed mother at church.

I am grateful for the way the sacred moves in and out of our lives. I am grateful for the way the spirit holds paradox. I am grateful for this child and this path and the yearing of my heart which has led me. I am grateful for all the small tasks the daily rituals that circled round this conversation. The sock putting on. The hair brushing. The incenses lighting and cereal pouring. May these things anchor her and hold her in the daily divinity that surrounds us.