… for the current Samhain Season (in the Southern Hemisphere), as well as the planetary meltdown we witness: may we remember a deeper story always present. This was originally published in Gaian Voices Volume 6, Number 1 & 2, 2008 (by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.)

In the last couple of years two significant friends of mine have passed, trans-formed. I feel deeply their passing. I have photos of them on my altar, amongst many other photos and special objects … memories arranged in an order I find meaningful. Such memories are like fossils in layers of Earth – She remembers Her story, I remember my story. I remember these beloved ones who have been part of creating this present moment. Their lives have been harvested earlier than I and others would have wished, yet in that, many have received their gift, their presence, more intensely. It is interesting to me how there is a way in which an absence can be a presence. What each of these two friends has given me while they lived in this form has grown stronger within me in their trans-forming.

One taught me Poetry … I write it with a capital because it was sacred expression: he could speak Rumi and Iraqi and Rilke by heart, and with the female pronoun for the Divine which pleased me. He could seduce whole groups of people gathered for other purposes, with these oratory experiences. I learned from him how people loved to hear this sacred Poetry, to have this experience: it was a hint of a form of “church” or ceremony that most have little real access to. I now facilitate seasonal ceremonies that I understand as Poetic experiences. And I have learned by heart some of the Poetry he used to speak. His presence lives in me in this way.

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