One of the ways we are connected to each other as family is in the ways we live on in future generations. The love and legacy we leave behind is a gift to those who come next.
What would you like your legacy to be?
Echoes from the Past
As we begin the month of November I am very aware of many spiritual practices that honor and remember our ancestors. Our ancestors are family who helped shape our current family. Family traditions may still exist that have been passed through the generations, stories carried from a mother’s mouth to her child, and she to her child. Famous ancestors, maybe the town doctor who has a park named after him. Or simply a headstone marking a loved one’s passing. They are all still family, even as an echo from the past. -Katherine Hofmann (CLF)
What echoes from the past do you feel/hear/understand today?
Family
This month, we will be exploring the theme of family. It is a complicated theme, and we want to begin by honoring the many ways families exist in this world, and the fact that for many, family has been a source of pain.
Be gentle with yourself today.
Cycles of Life and Death
The cycles of nature teach us about life–a part of which is death. We can learn to let go, to release our being into the universe, to recycle our atoms and our energy as part of our planet’s breath. We can learn to live after the death of someone close to us, to know that they, too, are part of all that is around us.
At this time of year when cultures around the world celebrate the ancestors, remember someone you would like to carry in your heart today.
Wholeness
“Eventually, my eyes focused on a singular fish ‘stuck’ below a rock wall just below a deeper pool. As I watched her swim without getting anywhere, I found myself wanting to help. I imagined scooping her up and assisting her over the rock wall. Pretty soon, others in my hiking group started saying the same thing I was thinking! We all wanted to help.
“But we didn’t. It’s against the law to disturb the kokanee during this precious time in their life cycle. More importantly, we decided that we could trust that this incredible creature had everything in her that she needed to engage the work that was hers to do.
“This idea—that we all already have everything we need within us to meet the life that is before us—is…a reminder to connect to our Wholeness. It’s an invitation to put away the lie we have swallowed… that we are separate from God…..” -DanaLee Simon, from the reflection “The Work That’s Ours to Do”
What reminds you to connect to your wholeness?