The Slippery Spirit

The following topic could possibly illicit some horrible reactions. Given that everyone wants to be focused on issues of racism and cultural misappropriation these days, there may be an assumption that this entry is about race. To address that, I have to first note that this is  my  blog and I can write whatever I want, because until further notice, I do still have the freedom to express myself. You, the reader, also have the freedom to navigate away from my words and not read them. Secondly, let me note that this blog entry is not about race at all, it is about families and their cultures. If you can't separate the two in your head, you need to stop reading now and go away. The honoring of our past relatives is extremely important. Without diving into an extremely long blog entry on why it's important, just follow me down this thought path. Wouldn't you rather your descendants remember and honor you, instead of completely forgetting you? If you aren't going to leave ...

A great deal happened in my life in 2015. Around Thanksgiving, my relationship ended causing me to move from the cute home with access to 1/3 of an acre of growing things, to an apartment with no outside to call my own. I hope to spend more of my time focusing on the meditational portion of my studies. Secondly, my mother passed late in the year, only 3 months after she found she had two tumors on her pancreas. She had been living in an independent-living apartment, but while she was in the hospital, she stated at one point that she was never going to meet the minimum functionality to return there, so us kids should get all her things packed up and moved out. I think it was also clear to her, and to all of us, that she was not likely to live through this illness at all. So as we packed up her apartment, everyone asked each other what we should throw away, or divide amongst ourselves, or put into storage. Having not yet moved into my new apartment, I told everyone that I wasn...