Reflections

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  1. c
    carol

    Look to myself first when in need of healing, addressing illness, appreciation of nature, how to experience a forest, a plant and animal, the importance of community and the well being of your neighbour is your well being, laughing at oneself, learning and self taught, the importance of forgiveness, war never solves a problem and only creates more suffering, … and then the gifts I would rather do without– the generational traumas that are mine to heal

    1 year ago
  2. O.Christina

    You can become aware and being informed by the ancestors` assumed nature, as well as like me having received the name of the daughter of the grandmother of my mother, whose nature feels to be familiar to me although I only know that she died aged 18 due to Tbc. She was the beloved daughter of her mother who never could get over her death, which had a strong impact on all who came after; originally, which has been deepest grief which, through keeping it inward, altered to the outside into a form of silent grief, partly converted into emotional and material stinginess projected onward to her remaining son, my grandfather and further partially also to my mother. The gift is to have taken the chance to open the silence and let the ancient grief be seen, which has been also unprocessed in the above named daughter of my great grandmother and through this, possibly be on its way to healing for all concerned as well as for the ancestors. May they rest in peace and be blessed. Thank you dearly for this question.

    1 year ago
  3. Robin Ann

    Traditions and my Faith. Love of the ocean, nature and Celtic music.
    I really felt that I went home when I went to Ireland, felt very surreal to me.
    I also feel I inherited resilience as a quality of my ancestors. My grandmother went to work
    back in the depression era when my Grandfather lost his job in banking. She was a very successful & highly respected
    as an Executive Secretary for General Electric.

    1 year ago
  4. Don Jones

    If I think of it as a collaborative, collective unfolding, then the baton that has been passed to me is magnificent. My wish is that baton will be significantly enhanced when it is time for me to pass it on.

    1 year ago
  5. Antoinette

    I have received this life I’m currently living . Without them I wouldn’t be here.

    1 year ago
  6. Barb C

    Generally good health, and through the luck of the genetic dice I didn’t get the genetic disease that some people in my mother’s line had.
    Good teeth! (Which are a part of good health that can be overlooked.)
    Living in this country thanks to immigration from England and Wales.
    Living in the Pacific Northwest thanks to migration across the continent.
    From my maternal grandmother, learning to knit, tat (which I’ve half forgotten but did once upon a time), and bowl.
    From my parents, so many gifts I can’t list them all.

    1 year ago
  7. Charlie T

    Of course the obvious, the gift of life,
    but I think of it more as the gift of
    Luck. The fact that any of us are here,
    is thanks to an amazing chain of
    things going right. Of someone
    giving birth and avoiding an accident,
    disease, war, famine, and so many things
    that could go wrong. For each one of us
    this chain goes unbroken, all the way back
    to the first forms of life. Splitting, dividing,
    reproducing, evolving, and avoiding being
    devoured by other life forms. And here
    we are. All of us. Our hearts still beating
    with that original spark of energy.
    Passed along and kept alive. Or, in the
    vast majority of cases, the spark didn’t
    keep going. The odds are staggering
    that this energy resides in me as I sit
    here with a cat in my lap, watching
    another sunrise.
    Thanks for this question and sorry
    for the ramblings. I will definitely give
    thanks to our ancestors today.

    1 year ago
    1. Barb C

      This reminds me of the wonderful book by Stephen Jay Gould on the Burgess Shale. So much happenstance, so many coincidences, and here we are!

      1 year ago
    2. Carol

      Charlie T Thanks for the reminder that life is truly gift.

      1 year ago
    3. A
      Ana Maria

      BEautiful answer! I thank you!

      1 year ago
  8. Carol

    This question prompts me to share a meditation I wrote in 2016. I call on my ancestors often and find comfort in doing so. I also remind myself that Creation is One and Time is always NOW. Morning Meds, August 29 2016 We never walk alone

    “As we grow older we have more and more people to remember, people who have died before us. It is very important to remember those who have loved us and those we have loved. Remembering them means letting their spirits inspire us in our daily lives. They can become part of our spiritual communities and gently help us as we make decisions on our journeys. Parents, spouses, children, and friends can become true spiritual companions after they have died. Sometimes they can become even more intimate to us after death than when they were with us in life. Remembering the dead is choosing their ongoing companionship.” Henri Nouwen

    Good Morning, I chose to share this quote because I call on my ancestors often. I claim their strength and many times ask for their help. I especially like the last sentence in Nouwen’s quote: “Remembering the dead is choosing their ongoing companionship.”

    While living in Arizona, I volunteered to work at a free alternative medicine clinic which was held once a month at an Episcopal church in Bisbee. One of the practitioners I met there gave spiritual readings. She was a gifted psychic and I will never forget the day I met her. I was on my break and when I entered the church activity building kitchen for lunch, she was seated at the kitchen table and her loving energy just permeated the entire room. I immediately knew I would schedule a session with her.

    I saw her several times during the next couple of years and always found the readings she gave helpful to my spiritual growth. During one of those sessions, the challenges I have always faced with anxiety surfaced. I told her that I had come to believe that every time I successfully worked through my anxiety, I was not only helping myself but I was also helping those who came before me as well as my children and their children.
    Today, I would add that any growth in awareness any of us achieve is growth for all of creation. It is evolutionary.

    In one session with her, I was given a tremendous gift. She had called on my ancestors at my request and she saw a group of women—many of them bent over and appearing crippled by anxiety. I felt an extremely loving energy as she shared that they were all willing and all wanting to help me and support me on my spiritual pilgrimage. I sensed I gave them hope. Her description of them comes to me often and I know their willingness, their loving energy, has strengthened me.

    As a child, my religious tradition had taught me to call on the “communion of saints.” Sadly, the same religious tradition has attempted to control who attains sainthood and who does not through a process called canonization. I have no need for that process. I often call on those struggling women who did their very best to grow in awareness and who wish for me to grow in awareness, too. I, also, call on the many mentors who have enriched my life but have passed on. They continue to support me through the wisdom they brought into my/the one life we all share.
    There is a fine line between the seen and the unseen. I choose to erase it and embrace them all.

    1 year ago
    1. Joseph McCann

      Always nice to read something to keep my brain pondering. Thank you Carol.

      1 year ago
      1. Carol

        Joseph, You are most welcome.

        1 year ago
    2. A
      Ana Maria

      Thank you Karol for inspiring me to see my ancestors in another light. Yes, they are saints as well. I love your line of calling on those struggling women who did their best to grow in awareness and wish for you to grow in awareness too. Powerful!

      1 year ago
      1. Carol

        Ana Maria, I believe that line (I often call on those struggling women who did their very best to grow in awareness and who wish for me to grow in awareness, too.) from the bottom of my heart. I also believe that when you call on your ancestors, they always come in the form of loving energy.

        1 year ago
    3. Charlie T

      Thank you for this, Carol.
      Your words are like a soothing
      balm.

      1 year ago
      1. Carol

        Charlie T, What a beautiful compliment. Thank You!

        1 year ago
  9. Laura

    I had the privilege as a child and adolescent to have many annual visits with my great aunts in Canada. The oldest of the crew was born in 1878 and she regaled us with stories of her father and brothers clearing tree stumps from farm land with oxen teams and the simple joys they derived from one another as a family.
    When I think of my mother’s side of the family, humor is always the first quality that springs to mind. So many photos of my grandparents show them smiling and laughing. My grandfather was the son of a stone mason who came to the U.S. from England. My grandfather earned a Ph.D. and happily worked as a researcher and university professor the rest of his life. I marvel at the change in family circumstances in just one generation.
    This is a long way to say that my ancestors gave me the gifts of hard work, perseverance, aspiration, humor and love. I think of them often when my own life hits a bump, and their examples never fail to help me square my shoulders, take a deep breath and face whatever difficulty is before me.

    1 year ago
    1. Carol

      Laura, Your sharing is inspiring. Thanks.

      1 year ago
  10. Avril

    That is an interesting question. Not too long ago, I did genetic history thru “23 and Me”. I was thrilled to find out I am 75% West African (mostly Nigerian and Ghanaian) and 25% British/Irish. I had always identified as Afro-Caribbean. In my genes I carry the story of survival. People who survived unspeakable horror to overcome and flourish in the “New World”. I owe my tenacity, enthusiasm, and dry sense of humor to my ancestors. I owe it to them to live life to the fullest.

    1 year ago
    1. Carol

      Avril, AMEN!

      1 year ago
    2. Laura

      What a powerful testament, Avril. Thank you for sharing this.

      1 year ago
  11. Josie

    Deep, abiding faith.

    1 year ago
  12. Joseph McCann

    A strong bond and stewardship to the earth with all it’s wonder, beauty, life sustaining and healing qualities.

    1 year ago
  13. Pilgrim

    So many memories! The gift of music, love of the outdoors, resilience, a great sense of humor, doing a lot with a little. And as some would say, “a bit of the Irish!”

    1 year ago
    1. Robin Ann

      I love that “Doing a lot with a little”, very much the way I am : )

      1 year ago
  14. EJP

    Survival.

    1 year ago
  15. Kevin

    Stubby digits, male pattern baldness, and arthritis! 😊

    1 year ago
    1. Charlie T

      That definitely made me laugh 😂
      Thank you.

      1 year ago
    2. Carol

      Hi Kevin, Some one gave you a quick wit! You gifted me with a belly laugh.

      1 year ago
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