The membrane between the living and the dead is very thin.
Charlie Wright, Patwin traditional person
Tonight the table is set for the spirits. The cempasuchil, the marigolds send out their aroma with the incense. White Sage, Juniper, Copal, Sundance Sage, Cedar. The images of our loved ones come together in community to receive our offerings and our prayers. People of Light receive our humble votive candles, to thank them with light, with fire for the light they shine on us every hour of our lives. Hot chocolate. Coffee. Huckleberry Jam. Pecans. Water. Kinnickinnick. Eagle Feathers. Delicate moments. Tenderness. Feeling through the membrane that tells us all is well. We are remembered. They are remembered. They who have gone on will wait for us to travel the path that leads to them.
-Inés Hernández-Ávila
Inés Hernández-Ávila is Niimiipuu and Tejana, Professor Emerita, Native American Studies, UC Davis.
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