My mother was a New York City police officer. In the religion of Vodou, her angel would be the lwa Ogoun, spirit of iron, strength, war, politics. She was a strong and unconstrained person. She was a fighter with a powerful will. She had a righteous anger that enmeshed dynamically with the force of her inner compassion - constantly - and like the principle of the yin and yang, her character expressed the constant surging between hot and cold, the sun and the moon, the masculine and the feminine.
With my father, who embodied the water element, it could sometimes be chaotic in our house.
As her child, I am also a daughter of Ogoun, but with fire tempered by water, coolness, Dambala, and balance.
As an ancestor, she is ever-present, but much more so today when I look into the mirror. I will always be grateful for her incarnation.
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