From Hart to Hearts
A Message from Rev Linda Hart for the month of October 2009
October is a month of remembrance for me. Since I learned about Samhain, the Celtic festival from which Halloween has grown, I have thought of this month as the time to remember. The season invites reflection as well, with the air becoming more chill, the days now dramatically shorter, and the turn of the leaves reminding us that all that lives eventually comes to an end.
The reflection of the season is not necessarily a grim and depressing endeavour, but can be a time for gratitude and thanksgiving, a time for taking stock of those who have given to us in our lives.
I had a lovely reminder of that with the visit of old friends Mark and Kendyl Gibbons in the beginning of September. I've known them for somewhere around 30 years, though there have been long periods of time when we've hardly had a word. It was the first time in longer than I can remember that they heard me speak in worship.
When the service was over, Mark gave me a gift. He said: 'When you put on your preaching face and voice, I see and hear your mother in you.'
My mother, dead 25 years now, was my strongest supporter in my pursuit of ministry. A month after I was ordained, we buried her as the cancer that had invaded her liver, lungs and bones finally took her life. I think of her often even these many years later, but because it is rare that I am with those who knew her, I would have never thought that someone might hear her voice in me still.
This is a good time to honour those who live within us still. As the days turn cooler, and the dark of our days is longer, reflection and quiet seem natural responses. I wonder who lives in you still? Do you hear your mother's voice when you speak sometimes? Your father's laughter after hearing a particularly clever joke? Do the words of a good friend echo through your consciousness at moments of particular worry? Whose spirit is present to you when you have a moment of rest?
We all bear within us the precious memories of those whom we have loved. Their lives have shaped our own, the gifts of their friendship and love have shaped who we are.
In this month of memory, the pagans believe that the veils between the worlds are most thin, and love and thought move between this world and the world beyond. In these weeks of the beauty of autumn, may we take time for a counting up of our blessings, and especially the blessings of lives that have given our lives meaning and beauty.
May it be so with you,
Linda