remembering

This is from another creative web site that i check often....

This weekend is the Celtic feast of Samhain and the Christian celebration of All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day which begins a whole month in honor of those who have died.

For the Celts this is the beginning of a new year and an especially thin time when the veil between heaven and earth is more transparent. As you begin a new year, you might consider calling to mind the memory of your ancestors and offering gratitude for all they have done to make it possible for you to exist. We tend to neglect our ancestral heritage in our culture, but in other cultures remembering the ancestors is an intuitive and essential way of beginning anything new. We don't recognize the tremendous wisdom we can draw upon from those who have traveled the journey before us and whose DNA we carry in every fiber of our bodies. As a way of honoring the past before we welcome in the future, consider engaging in practices that help you to connect with your own ancestors and the stories that form the roots of your own. Consider weaving these practices into your New Year's ritual as a way of recognizing that we never leave the past behind, but simply build on its foundations. A tree needs a strong root system to be able to reach its branches wide and tall.

Practice: Ancestor Stones
In the winter of 1955, the great psychologist Carl Jung chiseled the names of his paternal ancestors on three stone tablets and placed them in his courtyard. "When I was working on the stone tablets," he wrote, "I became aware of the fateful links between me and my ancestors." Consider going on a walk in the woods or on the beach at the end of the year and gather stones together. Bring them home and paint the names of your ancestors onto each stone and place them in your altar space or create a special altar for them. Make some time to hold each of them in your hands, make space within yourself to receive their gifts and wisdom, and reflect on the journeys of the people whose stories are so much a part of your own.

I have brought home many stones from the ocean and other places and intend to do this simple remembrance hopefully sometime next week while it is the season of remembering.....