Feng Shui & Personal Memorials

This vase is my personal memorial to my mother. It’s also a bookend for some very special books.

When my mom, Merle, died in June, I wrote an article dedicated to her. I also put her picture on our home altar to honor her.  (See the end of this post for photos.) And I also went shopping…

The day after she passed, I found myself on eBay looking at a picture of this vase.

It’s Camark Pottery from Camden, Arkansas and she had recently told me that when my oldest brother was an infant, she was teaching school in Arkansas. She had also been saying how she missed my father, and her own mother and father. The more I looked at this vase the more I saw a unity of images: My mother reunited with my father and her parents. The two calla lily flowers symbolize my parents together again, and the two leaves (one on each side of the vase) symbolize her two parents. Well, I was the only person bidding on the vase and I got it. I placed it in our home so that I pass close by it many times a day. That’s the important part—many times a day. Also, never let a personal memorial area become cluttered. It’s better to respectfully put the memorial away, rather than have it in a cluttered setting.

The photo of my mom was taken when she was in her 80s. A week or so before she died, she described herself as a “Catholic Buddhist.”

Our home altar is a vintage Japanese butsudan and it’s the most ornate thing in our home. It has a special shelf that’s perfect for a small photo of my mother, Merle.

Well, tears are streaming down my face as I write this and I think I’ll stop now. I’ve gotta go blow my nose…