For many people, thinking about ancestors is painful because our ancestors did real and lasting harm while they were alive. For some of us, that harm lives on in family systems that must be carefully dismantled. And for some of us, truth-telling about the harm our ancestors did is the beginning of a long pathway of learning to do better.
How do you engage with the harm done by ancestors?
The pieces of a quilt are carefully sewn together, making patterns and designs that no piece alone can capture. Each of us is also a patchwork of experiences, lessons, and more. Each of us has been carefully pieced together, hopefully with love in every stitch.
What piece of you can you celebrate today?
The ancestors who shape our lives are not all related to us. Many are spiritual ancestors, whose teachings and guidance live on in us.
Who are your spiritual ancestors?
“Our history is always with us. Across organisms
offspring receive a maternal inheritance, DNA:
strands of instructions, twisted together
and reaching into the future”
-from “Mitochondrial Gift, by Julián Jamaica Soto
What are the genetic gifts you carry from your ancestors?
This month, we will be thinking about the spiritual and physical gifts given to us by our ancestors. We invoke the cloud of beneficial ancestors to surround us with their love.
Who are the beneficial ancestors whose love surrounds you today?
