Mourn the Dead

Hello Friends,

In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the time of late harvest. The time when spirits are said to walk the earth.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the is the time of planting. The time when spirits are said to walk the earth.

We live in in-between times, the liminal spaces I wrote about last week. The pause between the inhalation and exhalation of the year. We dress up. We offer gifts to the spirits. We harvest or plant what we can.

Organizer Mary “Mother” Harris Jones once said “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!” And that’s what we do.

We mourn those who are gone. And we keep finding ways to celebrate and uplift those who remain. Today, I’ll do this by dropping off supplies to support some unhoused neighbors as the nights lengthen and the days grow colder. Tomorrow, my family will make dinner for the ancestors and hand out treats to any children who stop by.

And so: we keep finding ways to grieve and celebrate. We keep finding ways to get each other through.

We mourn the dead. We fight for the living.

We survive.

Wishing you warmth and love.

And Season’s Greetings.

— Thorn