Rising from our brunch table, I am still chuckling in my heart. Though our blessed mother questionned the truth of "eternal life" according to her faith's definition, I swear she is still tickling us all from beyond the pale! We are so accustomed to either crucifying our mother's for our inabilities to see our choices of perceiving her for lacks or losses, or celebrating her as one of our Intimate Heroes. Personally, I observe that in North America, we are in deep need of appreciation for our Mothers' Lineages, all those women who pioneered in this new world, replanted Ancestral Roots of rituals, recipes and actual seeds, women who suffered in silences, withdrawn from their Motherland's villages and cultures, women who persevered, oftentimes, in the face of circumstances which we, now, would yield to. Yea though I walk through these Valleys of the Shadows of our Mothers, I fear no evil nor do I fear what other's think of me, nor am I worried about other's reactions to my spontaneous outbursts of love and affection, either on the streets, in change rooms, or in gyms! For I am spawned of the eggs of Salmon Mothers, in rushing waters, cold from glaciers, harsh for others but just right for my genomes! I that I am outrageously laughing after five years since her passing, miss our Hellin, and yet, in our storytelling, her spiritual forces, her dedications to making this life better for us, her committments to education and empowerment of women, all this and more are indicative of this ETERNALITY of Life Force and an expression of the immortality of her love! So Hellin, the joke is on you! You and I as ONE, have proved the ANSWER to your question. No, we have lived it! And it is so! Your love and creativity, your determination and SISU, that resilience that makes us thrive in new surroundings, all this and more is realized through your daughters, grand daughters and now, great grand daughters! Faith is sometime a quality harvested well after the sower of these seeds has passed from the Garden. hmmmmmm Kaariina