Boo!
Do you enjoy Halloween? Do you celebrate Samhain? Or is your religion one that is against it all? I’d really like to know.
Halloween isn’t quite the same for me as it was in the years before I lost Stephanie, rather I see it as a time when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest, when dreams of her come to me and I could swear she is just…over there. This is the week of the many days leading up to Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead – a Mexican holiday celebrating the ancestors with altars of ofrendos, sugar skulls, and picnics at the gravesides.
A couple of days ago was Día de los Muertos de la Mascota, the Day of the Dead for Pets, and although I didn’t dream of any of my lost babies, I have had them in my heart all week. Gizmo, who was Stephanie’s last kitty, a beautiful lavender point Siamese; Lily, who was Stephanie’s last dog. Sean and I took care of them both after Stephanie died. Somehow I always knew they would come to us for safekeeping. I’m glad they finally did. Stephanie was never able to properly care for them, as she was never able to properly care for herself, but she loved them massively.
There have been many other pets over the course of my lifetime. I can never resist a stray (human or animal!) and have loved them all as best I could. Some, I have fostered; some, I have had to rehome because of their not fitting into the pack, despite my best efforts. And some have simply escaped through a door open a second too long. To all of them, I send my sincere love and appreciation for the time they spent in my home.
On Halloween, our neighborhood will open up for two hours of trick-or-treating. I’m not dressing up this year. Instead I’ll just enjoy the kids who show up to ask for candy. I’ll light the Jack O’Lantern and play some spooky music. I’m sure I’ll be cold, sitting out on the driveway in a folding chair, leaves swirling down around me in the evening breeze of fall, so I’ll likely be wrapped in a warm blanket. I’ll be the shivering and sometimes shambling mound!
I hope you all have a good Halloween and take good care of yourselves as we lose more of the light every day. Enjoy a hot cup of tea or cocoa and remember your ancestors, by whose efforts you now exist.
Namaste,
Jude
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