The Season for Ancesters

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Hooray, GIA here.

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I'm this week's host of the

Creative Spiritual Journey podcast

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where Judy and I talk about those

things that bring us joy for me.

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I find joy by connecting with

nature, connecting with Jesus

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Christ and our heavenly parents.

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Seasonal living, and all the bits

of magic and wonder I come across.

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While navigating this remarkable

journey we call life, oh how I

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love the ever changing seasons, the

flow and cycle, the spiral of time.

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I love the spiral because here I find

myself in October again, and I love

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October in the Northern hemisphere.

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In fact, if anyone asks me what my

favorite color is, I say, October.

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All the golds, reds, browns, and oranges,

throw in a little purple and mossy green.

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Those are my colors.

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But if you live in a place that

doesn't have much seasonal variation,

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or if you're heading into spring,

simply hear what I have to say,

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then embrace exactly where you are.

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Because regardless of your season,

the land, the trees, the wind,

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the rains, they all have cycles.

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And I believe we can

learn from those cycles.

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They can teach us things about ourselves,

both physically and spiritually,

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and we can apply what we learn to

our lives enriching the connection

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between the earth and our bodies.

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Because that's one of the things

we're here to do, isn't it?

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To learn how to live in a physical

body, and don't you think that our

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maker provided us with an earth

where we could best accomplish that?

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I think so.

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That's why I believe our connection

with the earth, with nature and

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the seasons is so important.

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So let me talk a little about seasons.

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Here is a quote from Catherine

May and her book, wintering.

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She says, life meanders like

a path through the woods.

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We have seasons when we flourish,

and seasons when the leaves fall

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from us revealing our bare bones.

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End quote.

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That sounds a little ominous, doesn't it?

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Our bare bones.

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But have you ever had a season in your

life where you felt like that, felt

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like everything was stripped away,

leaving you exposed and unprotected

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with no choice but to begin?

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Again, I have definitely

experienced this, but listen to

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what Catherine goes on to say.

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The dropping of leaves by deciduous

trees is called abscission.

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It occurs on the cusp of autumn

and winter as part of a long cycle

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of growth, maturity, and renewal.

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But even as the leaves are falling, the

buds of next year's crop are already

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in place waiting to erupt again.

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In spring.

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Most trees produce their

buds in high summer.

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And the autumn leaf fall reveals them neat

and expectant protected from the cold by

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thick scales until the sun returns again.

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Did you know that, that the buds

are on the trees all winter?

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I always assume they grew in the spring.

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To me, this is a lesson I can apply

to my life when I am at my dark

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points, when my bones are exposed.

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I can know that I already have

everything I need to grow again.

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So here I am in October.

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It's cool and crisp in the

mornings, which I love it.

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And I can look out over my little

valley and see the trees turning yellow.

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It's so beautiful.

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And you know what all this means?

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It means that Halloween

is around the corner.

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I will admit I have

always loved Halloween.

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I love the decorations, fall

leaves, candy skulls, pumpkins.

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I love the smells, apple and cinnamon,

And believe it or not, as a kid, I loved

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dressing up much more than the candy.

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My mom was great at making

costumes, which was so much fun.

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So just for a moment, I wanna

talk about this holiday we call

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Halloween, quoting from wintering.

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Again, Catherine says.

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In Halloween, we see the echoes

of the Gaelic Pagan Festival of

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Saw wind, which marked the arrival

of the dark half of the year.

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It was celebrated with bonfires and

burning torches, the scattering of

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ashes, and an attempt to see the future

through dreams or the flight of crows.

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Most importantly, saw wind was

considered to be a moment when the

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veil between this world and the other

world was at its thinnest end quote.

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The idea of the veil between this world

and the other world fascinates me, and I

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wanna talk about that more in a moment,

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First, let me say, learning of Halloween's

Gaelic roots makes me feel all the more

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justified in loving the holiday because

I have Scottish and Irish ancestry,

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and when I stopped to think about

how these people lived, people in my

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direct bloodline, it baffles my mind.

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Imagine living in a village of

farmers over a thousand years ago.

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The harvest is in, the weather is

getting colder, the darkness is growing.

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All the plants around you are dying.

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The animals are disappearing, and

you are facing the long winter.

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This is the time of year when

you know if you have enough food

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to make it through the dark.

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You know whether you are heading into a

time of plenty or a time of starvation.

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I can't think of anything more scary.

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So this is the time of year when

you gather with your neighbors for

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bonfires and hope to see the future.

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And this is the time when you

feel the veil between life and

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death thinning because at this

time, death could be so possible.

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Uh, that helps me understand a

little more about this season.

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Now, I think it's interesting to note

that the elements of our Halloween

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were created as much by Christianity

as paganism, because in an attempt

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to distract the people from the Pagan

celebration of sawn, the Catholic church

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named to November 1st, the day after, saw

one as All Saints Day or All Hallows Day.

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This was a day to celebrate Dead Saints,

which we might call spirits or ghosts.

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This all Hallows Day is what gave

us the name of Halloween because

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Saan on October 31st became All

Hallows Eve, which morphed into all

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Hallowine and eventually to Halloween.

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It isn't exactly clear where the

tradition of trick or treating

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started, but it does appear to have

roots in the Catholic theology.

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The priest taught that souls could

get stuck in purgatory, this place

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between heaven and hell, and that

they could be helped out of purgatory

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with prayers from the living.

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This prompted what was called soling.

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Where people went from door to door

asking for small cakes and in exchange

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they would pray for the lost souls.

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Now, Halloween wasn't celebrated in the

United States until the mid 19th century.

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It came with the millions of immigrants

that flooded into the country during

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the great potato famine, bringing

with them the tradition of Halloween.

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From here, it became one of those

melting pot holidays unique to the United

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States, along with holidays like St.

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Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo.

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Which brings us to where we are today.

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I don't know about you, but I feel

like the spirit of Halloween has

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changed significantly since I was a

child, which has caused my feelings

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about the holiday to change as well.

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I love witches and skeletons, but recently

the holiday has gotten too creepy for me.

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I am all about pumpkins and magical

herbal potions, but it feels like we

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are now celebrating blood and gore.

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So personally, I am choosing to

scale back on Halloween, but that

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doesn't mean I'm giving it up.

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I am simply taking a deep

dive in a different direction.

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Remember that part I mentioned

above about the thinning of the

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veil between this life and the next?

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I like this idea.

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Not because I feel any ghostly presences

or anything, but because when I

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connect to the earth and the seasons,

I can't die, that there is a theme

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of death and darkness in the fall.

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The northern half of the world has just

tipped towards the dark side of the year.

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It feels like a season when life meets

death, and even if we don't want to

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admit it, death is an important part

of this earthly experience, which

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means that Halloween seems to me like a

perfect time to connect with our ghosts.

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Ghosts, which I call our ancestors.

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I mean, why not?

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I have plenty of slightly creepy black and

white photos of past relatives, which make

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perfect Halloween decorations, inviting

an excellent time to celebrate the lives

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of our dead and recount their stories.

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To take the time to think

about and connect with them.

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In the United States, death

is often treated as something

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to avoid, sanitize or hide.

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So for some, celebrating our

dead can be cathartic, as well as

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connecting us to our heritage, that

deeper knowledge of who we are.

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And I am a firm believer in

the power of our ancestors to

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influence the lives of the living.

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Let me explain why.

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When I was younger, I didn't exactly

leave the church, but I did wander.

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I worked a lot on Sundays, and

I had a non-member boyfriend.

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Honestly, my life at the time

would've been a lot easier if

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I had simply left the church.

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But I couldn't do it.

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Instead, I rode the

fence and I hated that.

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It was an awkward place to be, but I

used to say that I couldn't leave the

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church because of my mother's prayers.

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And yes, I believe in the

power of mother's prayers.

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So my fence walking went on and on until

one day I happened to read a fictional

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book about the wives of Abraham.

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Abraham as in the Old Testament

prophet, this fictional book, was

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told from the perspective of one of

Abraham's daughters, and throughout

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the book, she referred to her father's

multiple wives as her mother's.

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this story brought the word mother's,

plural to the forefront of my mind.

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Shortly after that, I read the Journal

of my great-grandmother, Stella.

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She wrote in this journal for a

single year when she was 84 years old.

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It was one of those day journals

where you only have a few

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lines to write in each day.

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I love this journal.

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She wrote about picking up raw honey

from the health food store, getting

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petitions signed to stop the Vietnam

War, picking out just the right

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color carpet to go with her rose

wallpaper and about beautiful sunsets.

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I read this journal and thought.

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There is no doubt that I am related to

this woman, and that's when it hit me.

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My mother wasn't the only reason

I couldn't leave the church.

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It was all my mother's.

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The whole line of faith-filled women,

women I know and women I don't.

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A line of women that

stretched back through time.

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Back to the wives of Abraham

all the way back to Mother Eve.

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I'm a part of their legacy, and that

is why I couldn't leave the church.

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This little revelation caused me

to decide I would return to church

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activity and see if I could follow in

the footsteps of these women and find

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my own faith, my own solid foundation

in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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It took some time and the help of some

amazing people, but here I am firmly

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on Christ's side of the fence, and

you know what caused this to happen?

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My great grandmother's journal.

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Needless to say, I'm extremely

grateful for her and to my

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mother for sharing it with me.

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and did any of this happen in October?

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I have no idea.

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I can't remember, but I am prompted

to share this story because it's fall

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and who knows who out there might be

inspired to share stories of their own.

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Which to me demonstrates the magic of

fall and this thinning of the veil.

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Now, I want to add that not all

stories need to lead to conversion.

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I believe that simply connecting with

our ancestors is what we truly need.

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For example, the other day,

my mom was telling me about a

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time when she was in her teens.

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She recalls talking with her,

Grammy R, the R being for Ruing.

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Her and my mother commented to Grammy

R that she noticed how much her

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uncle Ed and her father looked alike.

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They were both handsome with

striking blue eyes, and Grammy R

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said, yes, they look alike, but they

are as different as night and day.

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That's a simple story, but

it tells me something about

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my uncle and my grandfather.

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I didn't know they had blue eyes.

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blue eyes like mine.

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Maybe it also teaches me something about

life that children can be so different.

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My point is I believe firmly in

the power of connecting with our

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ancestors, telling their stories and

remembering them, and I'm not the only

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one who believes this is important.

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I planned this podcast last January, but I

was so excited at the most recent October

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general conference to hear Dallen H Oak

suggest that we remember our ancestors.

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He was talking specifically about having

family reunions, but I think making

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our ancestors part of our seasonal

celebrations, the celebrations that

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happen every year, is also a great

way to keep them in our thoughts and

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provides us a place and a time to

share their stories with our families.

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Judy and I know that your time is

precious and that you have many choices.

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We love that you have chosen to

walk with us for a few minutes as

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we navigate this journey of life.

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If you like this podcast, will you take

the time right now to share it with a

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friend, share it somewhere on social

media, or leave us a five star rating.

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And if you listen on Apple Podcast,

will you leave us a five star review?

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I think we only have about five reviews

and we could seriously use more.

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If you aren't sure how to leave a review,

find a grandchild or neighbor and ask for

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help, Judy and I would be so appreciative.

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Now, let me end with an old

Scottish Prayer from Gies and

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Ghosties and long leg Beasties.

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And things that go bump in the night.

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Good Lord deliver us.

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Namaste.