NoTimidStrokes

Throughout history, cultures all over the world have venerated the ancestors. Typically, this practice is ritualized in the fall during the long awaited harvest season. In Mexico, they celebrate Dia De Los Muertos. The Catholic Church celebrates All Saints Day. The Indigenous Celtic tradition celebrated Samhain. These holidays hold sacred space for the honoring of the ancestors at a time when the veil between this life and the next is said to be thin and permeable. While the ancestors may be most available to us in the thin time of Autumn, they are with us every day. They labor over the garden with us as we pull weeds and water. They accompany us on our vacations to the oceans and mountains to breathe the fresh air and soak up the sun. They sit by us at picnics and watch as our children blow out their birthday candles. They give silent comfort  while we grieve or are frightened. I don’t pretend to know the best way to honor the lives that have come before us but I do know that in doing so, we are better able to honor the life all around us and to preserve this beauty for the generations yet to come. By weaving ourselves into the fabric of time, we become more whole. In our wholeness, we see more clearly. With our clarity, we rise more fully to the challenges that we face. We are better able to create a world that works for everyone.My wish for you is that you remember those whose lives have preceded your own, even if their lives were filled with misery and pain, I ask you to release their shortcomings and honor the tide that  lifted them. Somewhere in this great chain of being, there is the love of an ancestor aching to touch your heart. To turn our back on our lineage, we shut the door on all of the beauty as well as the pain. When we cut the thread that has woven our lives into the lives of others, we are left adrift. You are the culmination of years of struggle, grace, beauty, pain and triumph. You are a link in the chain of being.  You too, will become an ancestor. Your life is impacting the lives of everything and everyone around you, whether or not you even have children.