6th Day of Halloween/Samhain - Honoring the Ancestors

Today is a very emotional day, as we're dealing with some "domestic issues" here in our house right now.  I really want to blog about them, but am not sure how to without getting too snarky or fiesty about it.  Needless to say, I am hoping when the dust settles I'll be able to speak about it.

So, to the ancestors...

My mother is my hero, and I miss her terribly.  She was one of the wisest, funniest, smartest most wonderful women I have have met.  To say I strive to be like her is an understatement (and I fear I fall dreadfully short of filling those amazing shoes).  She was very loving and giving. She was both quick to laugh and quick to temper (a combination that I seemed to have inherited).

My mom passed over on January 31, 2001. I was 29, and in my opinion too young to be left motherless.  I needed and relied upon her wisdom to raise my child (back then I only had 1 who was only 2 at the time). I needed her council with marriage, and just life.  I miss her in so many ways that cannot fully be expressed. I mostly miss her when I look at my children and realize they will never know their grandmother (who would have spoiled them all senseless with her love, as she did to my daughter for the 2 short years before she left this plane).

Her name was Martha, and she grew up on a farm in Dexter, Maine.  She married my dad and divorced when I was 2. Back then, being a single mom was even more of a challenge than now.  She worked her fingers to the bone so I could eat, and finally remarried when I was nearly 9 and we had a better life financially after that.  She accepted me unconditionally and always encouraged me to be myself.

Mom, I love and miss you so very much. 

I am honoring my mother this year (as with the past 8 years) as the center of my ancestral altar.  She was truly one of a kind.