last night during one of my breaks between paragraphs, i happened to read an online journal post from a young mother who had just given birth to a stillborn baby boy. blinded by tears at the poignancy of her grief, i clicked over onto another site, this one about a little girl, around two years old, found by a fisherman stuffed in a plastic container of some kind and thrown into the ocean.
the last day of the samhain season, november 2, is celebrated by the tradition in which i was raised as the feast of all souls. i always thought it a curious kind of feast day no one ever explained to my satisfaction - who exactly were we remembering? bad people who didn't qualify as saints? why did they get a feast day, i'd wonder.
but now i think i understand the origins of all souls' day, and i think i realize who's day that really is. that is the day when we are meant to mourn the loss of all the children who died in the last year, children who died by accident, by disease, by war and all the terrible things the innocent are prey to.
so today, a bit late, perhaps, i'm lighting a pink candle and a blue one on my altar...to honor all who've lost their children, and for all the children who've been lost.
and furthermore, the war must end. blessed be.
nanowrimo word count: 11,876/50,000
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