October Reflections

Hello Loves,

Every year on this day I honor my ancestors.

First I clean my home – dusting, vacuuming, organizing, tidying, and letting go of the old. Then I clear off my altar, wipe it down, and ring my cymbals to set the energy. This is a holy day.

I act with presence, love, and remembering.

I pull out the collection of old photographs that I’ve carefully stored away. I lay them on my altar like a patchwork quilt of my past. Of my family’s past.

There’s the black and white photograph of my great-grandparents dressed in their best clothes out for a stroll. Their immigration from England to Canada made me Canadian. Because of their strength and perseverance through poverty and extreme hardship, I exist.

Photos of my Nana and Papa and Baba and Papa are here too – my grandparents. The stories they held as first generation immigrant children were told to me through my parents – more hardships and more love. They all lived together between the old ways of the English and the new ways as Canadians.

I stare into the photos of my aunts and uncles and cousins. They held me as a child, played with me and kept me safe. I can feel them here now. I can hear their laugh, know their personality, feel their bond.

So many people I love in my family have passed into the spirit world. They lived their lives beside mine. Birthday parties, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, births, graduations and marriages.

I light the candle in the center of my altar. I say each of their names in reverence and love. I thank them for everything they did that allowed me to be here.

Without these people I would not exist.

Blessings on this sacred day.

With love,