I remember when I was very young I heard whispers "Aunt Aggie is a witch" and living in a christian household I was scared. When I spent enough to with her to get over that silly fear I liked being around her. She always smiled, laughed, and made sure I was perfectly content when I stay with her. When I was a teenager and began to think for myself and began to shake off the terrible prejudices of the church I though, "Aunt Aggie's a witch. That's so cool!" I am sure I approached her with misinformed questions shaped by my interest in movies. But in time she educated me. I loved her to death and thought she was crazy fun.
My Aunt Agnes practiced Wicca, being half Cherokee and raised in the very center of a mining town in the very heart of WV, as most of my father's family. She helped to instill in me an understanding of the earth and a spiritual peace that could not be fathomed by those narrow minded sheep on my mother's side who whispered about her. She died last night, a few days short of her 81st birthdays and is now as one with the universe...and Aunt Aggie, I am happy for you.
NA proverb - "When you are born you cry and the world rejoices. Live your life so that when you die the world cries and you rejoice."
