I have always known candles to be sacred. The first place I remember seeing candles was on the Altárs set by my family at home. The wom*n in my family would light them to connect to spirit, to connect with ancestors. And I remember that aside from singing at church my favorite thing to do was visit the candles lit for prayer and remembrance- I’d gleam at the ability to place a dollar in the donation box as an honoring of my lighting a candle of my own. I would pray with eyes open- looking into the flame and seeing my prayer and spirit dance around it. The other times candles fill my memories were on cakes to celebrate years of living and holding wishes for graces and abundance to be received.
 The flame of candles are sacred to me, they symbolize life- lived, protected, honored, gifted and also lost, transitioned, ascended. Tonight I light a candle- in prayer, for many lives lost asking that with their Ascension that they pull us up to rising for justice, for change, for the dismantling of a system that does not serve our communities, but seeks to keep our wounds open, so they might be infected by the poisons and illnesses of our broken society, until it kills us, again and again and again… 

Tonight, I light a candle like my living elders taught me and our ancestors before taught them. Tonight, I light a candle for the unlawful death of countless lives to police brutality, lost to systematic racism, lost to all racism, lost to hatred, lost to fear, lost to mis-understanding, lost because we have forgotten we belong to each other and that we are all spirits walking in vessels seeking and deserving of the miracles that this life has to bless us with. Tonight I light a candle and know that I will have to light many more. Tonight, I light a candle.
No hash tags. Just prayer. Just light. Justice.