Between Us – Remembering the Ancestors

By Rev. Clyde Grubbs, April 9, 2024

When I was young, say going on 7 years, I remember my grandparents would ask me to remember “our ancestors — who are dancing for you.” I was told they had persisted in the times of danger, that they had walked in the good way. Their lives were a blessing on us who lived now.

Once they talked of Aunt Betty Ann. I thought and thought, and I didn’t know a Betty Ann, so I asked where she lived and will she visit someday. Grandmother said, “she has gone to dance with the ancestors.” I was very taken with the image, and it has stuck with me.

Recently I shared this memory with a Cherokee friend, and he replied that for him:  That is “what our ancestors are doing all the time, one big continuous ceremonial stomp dance.” For my people stomping is praying, to stomp is to bless the world.

How do you remember the ancestors? Open your heart and remember those who have gone before you. Say hello to them, recall whose care and labor over the generations have blessed us. They have given us so many gifts of knowledge and wisdom, enriching this world in which we live and move and have our being in.

First remember: Those who you may have known in your lifetime. Perhaps family members, and beloved companions, or friends and neighbors, or even members of your congregation. For me, having lived many years that is a long list. And then there are those heroes, perhaps you never met but they inspired you, maybe even called you to a new vision, new activism. You remember them with reverence and gratitude.

Remember them. Receive them. Join the dance for it blesses us.