YOUR ANCESTORS LOVE YOU BEYOND BELIEF

I am writing this on the back patio in 63 degree weather. I've been doing yoga outdoors all week. I've been watching the miraculous irises 

grow and multiply.

A few minutes ago, I spoke to MY SPIRITUAL GUIDE MARY MARINO. I told her that on Tuesday, I listened to an Oprah Super Soul Conversation with James van Praagh, a nationally-recognized spiritual medium WHO CONVINCED ME that he can communicate with loved ones who have passed on.

This morning, I wrote my parents DEE AND RICK  a note in my journal saying: "I would be a bit scared but also very glad if you would communicate with me even more than you have."

Mary reassured me that loved ones who have passed aren't going to be scary. If I consider the irises blooming in October as a communication, then Mary is absolutely right. These flowers, which are continuing to produce new blossoms, are amazing and wonderful.

Mary says that ancestors feel nothing but love for their descendants. "The way they  contact you is through the heart," Mary says. "You feel a burst of love and then you feel 'wow, that's just how I felt the loving presence of my mom and dad.'"

We got talking about how our ancestors love us.

"Just think about the love you have for your children. And then think of the love, love, love that you have for your grandchildren. Well, so, can you imagine the love you would have for your great grandchildren? When your ancestors look down upon you, their love multiplies in intensity. Your ancestors love you beyond belief. Their capacity to love just grows and grows with each new generation."

Speaking of my children, here is Jocelyn (left) with her son Ronen with Lindsay, the day Linds is getting married (July 29, 2017.)

I also have an amazing son, Noah Kirsch. 

And here is Jocelyn's second child, darling daughter DANI, who was named for Dena Clementina Rotondo Ricci.

It gives me chills to think about all this love. I know how much I love my children. I know how incredibly precious Ro and Dani are to me. THEY MAKE MY HEART MELT!

It's hard to imagine the two of them with their own children but I will be happy to have it happen.

I told Mary that I feel kind of bad that I don't have the same level of affection toward my ancestors that they apparently have for me. I LOVE MOM AND DAD

Here is my dad with baby Lindsay when she was brand new. Hiding behind is my wonderful sister Holly. Then one with Mom, Dad and Lindsay.

AND HERE ARE GRANDMA AND GRANDPA ANGELO AND ALBINA RICCI

AND GRANDMA MISH AND CLAUDE ROTONDO

but when it comes to other ancestors, it's hard to say I love them because I never knew them. I know them now only in old black and white photos.

"Just feel gratitude," Mary says. "Just say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for having birthed the lineage that produced me. Just say, 'I am so so grateful for the gifts of life and love.'"

So now I am feeling very grateful. I am gazing out to the meadow and loving the fall colors, especially the three RED TREES AT THE FAR END. I know more than ever that I have to stay calm to write this book. I have to be patient waiting for more signs from my ancestors, and to do that I have to live peacefully in the NOW.

So I am going to sit here and fill the rest of this post with some of my dear ancestor's photos. As I think this, suddenly the sweetest bird sound fills the air. It's so loud and beautiful, I thank whichever ancestor is speaking to me. And then an orange butterfly flutters overhead.

OK, now for the photos.

Here is Great Grandma Clementina Ciucci Caponi, who advised her daughter, my Grandma Mish (Michelina Rotondo) to have her firstborn son vaccinated back in the 1920s. The vaccine was bad and the baby-- named Dante Antonio Rotondo -- died at the tender age of nine months.

Oh, here is another photo of Jossy with her son Ronen Dante, a middle name honoring my Uncle Dante Rotondo, who was my Grandma Mish's second baby (yes they used the same name as they did for the first baby, which caused no end of stress in my uncle's life.)

HOLD ON!!!! THIS PHOTO OF THE IRIS, WHERE DID IT COME FROM?  I DID NOT SELECT THIS IRIS PHOTO WHEN I WAS SELECTING A PHOTO FOR MY ANCESTOR CLEMENTINA. I TAKE THIS TO BE ANOTHER SIGN.

MOM, YOU ALSO BEAR THE NAME CLEMENTINA (as well as the name DENA), SO I AM GOING TO ASSUME THAT YOU SENT ME THIS SIGN. 

Here you are, DEE. you gorgeous girl you!

BUT WAIT. IT'S DAD'S FATHER, ANGELO RICCI, WHO GREW THE IRISES THAT I ADORE SO MUCH AND WHICH ARE SO INCREDIBLY  IMPORTANT TO THIS BOOK.

So maybe it's both Mom and Dad ========SENDING ME THESE IRISES============. 

Now it occurs to me how crazy all this must sound to the reader.

I tell myself,

"DON'T GO BONKERS THINKING EVERY SINGLE THING IS A SIGN. That's what Dr. Gary Schwartz -- a research psychologist formerly with Yale University and now at the University of Arizona -- does in his book (which I am now reading) CALLED

SUPER SYNCHRONICITY, WHERE SCIENCE AND SPIRIT MEET.

HE WRITES IN GREAT DETAIL ABOUT SYNCHRONICITIES.

My own word file detailing synchronicities, or coinkydinkies, (or as my friend Kathy Joy calls them, "God Winks,") is 45 pages long. It goes back to 1996! It continues today right up to this minute. Rich coined the word coinkydinky. He says I simply have a keenly developed awareness that puts me in tune with the Universe.

All I know is that coincidences I cannot explain are happening all around me. As I am writing this post this morning, Rich is listening to NPR and suddenly there is a children's book being promoted. Called "I'm Every Good Thing," by Derrick Barnes, a gorgeous book, it mentions ancestors. 

Back to MY ANCESTOR'S PHOTOS:

Here is Great Grandma Domenica Bianchini Rotondo, Grandpa Claude Rotondo's mother, who we know as La Abandonatha:

Here is my mother Dena' as an infant, I think her eyes resemble Domenica's!

Next is Domenica's husband, my great grandfather Luigi Rotondo. Here he is in the Rotondo family tree, designed and assembled by my first cousin, Pat Rotondo (whose father was the second Dante):

Here now is an ancestor on my dad's side. She is Great Great Grandma Filomena Scrivano, who had a baby out of wedlock in a backward little town in southern Italy in 1870:  

And here is her son, my Great Grandpa Pasquale, who originated the last name Orzo (the town assigned him the name!) He produced my Grandma Albina Orzo Ricci and all of her sisters:

And here is Pasquale with his wife, my Great Grandmother Caterina Amendola Orzo. My great grandparents were married in January of 1898, in the tiny Italian coastal town of San Lucido, adjacent to the town of Paola where my great grandfather was born into shame. He is lucky he survived, as many infants born out of wedlock in Italian villages in the 1800s were killed.

It's time to stop. I've got to go for a walk. I need to clear my head. Writing this book fills me with explosive energy sometimes. The thought that I am trying to communicate with my mom and dad, or whichever ancestor(s) is/are available out there in the great beyond just blows my mind.

That's why I am doing so much yoga. To keep myself grounded in my body. To try to remain 

sane.