Dia de Bloglandia Post #2 (the art of remembering)

Every Sunday, throughout the month of October, a group of us join together in the art of remembering-all leading up to the Dia de Los Muertos in November-aka All Souls Day. Our hosts, Rebecca and Stephanie lead us graciously on this journey. Won't you join us? Joining can be as simple as visiting all the links posted on their blogs of those who participate. Share with us the beauty of remembering.

As Rebecca had written (I've taken an excerpt from her poem):

"treasure all those

who have graced our lives with their own courage and verve.

to reaffirm the promise to live life fully,

straight from our hearts, boldly, with great unending passion,

one full day at a time."

 

  She's an Angel Now...

In thinking about starting my first altar, I started to ask myself what my mother's favorite food was. I could not think of anything as she loved nearly everything! Not too big on the candy/sweet department, but she'd eat just about anything. I remember her talking about how she loved pickled pig's feet (hard to get on Molokai, so she hadn't had them in who knows how long when she was telling me about it). I remember how her eyes lit up in talking about them. Of course, the whole concept grossed me out! So, perhaps a  jar of pickled pig's feet shall grace this alter. Along with some Almond Roca. My brother says she also loved that. We never had much of that in our house because with four boys and two girls, nothing lasted very long!

My father in law, Scotty (whose name was really Kenneth), will have a bottle of Jim Beam in his honor. He would have one or two of those each afternoon around 3ish-he called it his 'tea time'. As for my mother in law, Marian, that is a no-brainer. It's a box of See's chocolate for her. She was the ultimate chocoholic! Many years ago, one Easter, Mark and I surprised her with a 4 foot tall chocolate bunny from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. That was fun.

My Grandma? That would be my dad's mother as I did not grow up around my other grandma, I would get a small Rubbermaid (the square kind) container, put a pouch of tobacco in it, along with a box of Lancer's matches and some cigarette rolling papers. She always rolled her own. She loved her tobacco and the wrestling games on TV.

I will be sure to include my dear friend, Delma. She has had a major influence on the current direction of my life in the art world now. I have a jar of her old paint brushes that I absolutely cherish. That too, will go on the altar.

I stared to clear away a place for the alter. For me, getting even this far-conceptualizing it and finding a place in my  home for this is a huge step from just talking about doing this each year.  I think the very act of doing this makes you think of all the positive memories you have of someone instead of just feeling the pain and the grief.

Thank you to all of you participating in this project. Thank you for opening your heart and sharing your stories. It has become a great inspiration for me to follow suit.