At this time of year in the northern hemisphere many cultures experience the veil between life and death to be at its thinnest. Día de los Muertos, Halloween, All Saint’s Day, and Samhain – while they are very different traditions – are just a few examples of this. For me this raises the question, How are your ancestors with you today? It’s an idea we’ve been excavating in season 2 of Sacred:Reclaiming Intuitive Teaching & Caregiving Relationships. Specifically in the context of when listening and feeling into the wisdom of our ancestors, how do we discern between an urge to survive and a move to thrive? You might be wondering how these questions apply to you if you don’t feel connected, or don’t want to feel connected to your ancestors. Maybe epigenetics is a starting place or a more comfortable place to excavate? We all have DNA that we inherited from our ancestors, which is affected by our life experience.
When I think of how the thin veil between me and my ancestors, and between me and my eventual end of life is more accessible to me right now, it makes me think of a question that came up for me during the Healing Centered Education certificate program that Angela Carolina and I did with Acosta Institute in the spring. Here’s an excerpt from my journal reflection:
“As we were wrapping up…my big question had been, Are we doing it? If we’re trying to do it in a capitalist container then are we doing it, really?…Makēda invited me to not know the answer to the question with recognition that our ancestors moved forward without knowing how their work would make way for us to be doing today’s work and emphasized process. Process is one of my natural orientations and this guidance from the facilitators was grounding. In the breakout room when I brought up how the sessions with Latise and Solana were like coming home with lots of salt water [tears] Yaniyah agreed and suggested they are “doing it” and then a little while later said, ‘What if we’re not the healers, we’re the healing?’ I love the ‘ing-ness’ of this idea! We both resonated on this and it gave me a greater sense of agency. That last integration session brought me closer to my own orientation and strengths, and being.”
Earlier this week I went to a workshop with Bettina Love and Dina Simmons, “We Shall Be Free: A Vision for Education 2025 & Beyond”. They gave us a history lesson and then reminded us that no matter who wins the election next week our work as advocates for liberational education for our children will continue. They pointed to the same sentiment and gratitude that our ancestors moved forward without knowing how their work would make way for us to be doing today’s work.
So, today my passion for the work is renewed and re-emphasized in this “thin veil” between life and death that makes yesterday, today, and tomorrow part of one story. The recognition that my life, my work, is part of a much longer story – the result of the efforts of our ancestors, the groundwork for future generations’ efforts. And so I find myself in this moment, motivated to be part of something larger than myself in the interest of liberation for our children.
Thank you for being a part of this story.
With love and gratitude,
Lauren