The Graze V.132: The Love of Thousands

Dear Friends:

This week, in the deep darkness of the waxing moon, the fox makes his appearance at the chicken house. Every night the chickens alert us. From bed, I rush down, grab a coat, a flashlight and whatever shoes are near the door and scream into the night, “Shoo! Go away”. My son joins me in the darkness - helping me to gather up the chickens, account for each of them, search for those that are missing. Unfortunately, we have lost a few of our beloved friends. We’ve also tightened up the security around the coops.

As we enter together into this darkest season of the year, we acknowledge the shadow side of this life and celebrate our ancestors who have gone before. Halloween, All Saints, All Souls, and Samhain - celebrated by the ancient Celts - all coincide on the calendar this week. This deep and ancient communal conversation about death, is really a conversation about living. It gives us pause as we contemplate our own death: How do we want to live this life?

I am grateful that our sacred calendars offer a space for us to express the grief that so many of us have carried over these past years. As we grieve and celebrate our beloved dead, we discover the deep love that continues. I invite you to send along the names of those you would like held up as we gather this Sunday Morning to celebrate All Saints. You can email me here.

It is easy to remember those who have gone before in this space at Mission Farm. There are ancestors all around us - buried beneath marked stones behind the church and in the cemetery at the end of the road. There are also ashes scattered simply and beautifully in the hills that surround the orchard and wetlands.

I was immersed in a book I picked up at the library this week. Dwellings:A Spiritual History of the Living World. It was written by Linda Hogan, an award winning Chickasaw poet and novelist. She calls us to witness how all beings are connected in a conscious world. That together - even after death, all beings exist and communicate with integrity, grace and dignity. She describes her spiritual journey as accompanied by those who have gone before:

Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. “Be still,” they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.

I feel this love in my life and in this space.

As we contemplate death and those who have gone before, may you find deep love and life,

Lisa