I am grateful for my Irish ancestors which make up most of my ancestry but I also have some German (my last name), Scottish and Welch. Growing up we really didn’t talk about our ancestry that much. I just remember st patrick’s day as a big day and we were a family of Catholic faith. I did learn from my Dad my Mom’s father was 100% Irish and that side of the family loved their Irish music sessions. I was raised with music, played guitar and clarinet and because of that I have a huge appreciation of music. I was also raised with work ethic as very important, my Dad is an Engineer and my Mom was a nurse. They both got their degrees essentially on their own. As a child we moved a lot because of my Dad’s career so I did not grow up around a lot of family but did have a special relationship with my Nana who was also very career minded. She was an Executive secretary for General Electric which was a big deal back in those days.
. . . a collection of ne’er do wells
and heroes . . .
I am grateful that because of them
I am here,
and have inherited all sorts of things
from them,
including some of my better traits. ♥
I’m thinking of my ancestors in several different ways. The stories my parents and maternal grandmother told about where they came from, which included my grandma emigrating from England at the age of four and my dad’s parents coming west from North Carolina. The more distant family tree with various connections, including (supposedly) the composer Schubert (I liked that one because I played piano) and someone named de Mille (never knew whether we were related to the film director). The heritage, cultures, and foodways that came down through all of that. Feeling very connected to my Welsh ancestry (maternal grandfather’s side) when I took a class in Middle Welsh in college as a linguistics major.
Then there’s the longer story, the unknown ancestors I only recently learned about by getting my DNA tested. They describe my family tree in terms of “ancestral journeys” over the past 300 years. Their journeys are labeled as North Carolina Settlers (Blue Ridge Mountains, Wautauga River Valley); Northwestern North Carolina (Wautauga Lake); Southern Appalachia (Catawba, Lincoln, and Gaston County, North Carolina); and the Midlands in England (Staffordshire, Cheshire, Northern Shropshire, Northern & Central Staffordshire & Cheshire).
My overall genetic mix reflects a lot of movement and pairing up from a broader geographic range: 39% England & Northwestern Europe, 27% Scotland, 20% Germanic Europe, 6% Denmark, 6% Wales, 2% Ireland. I joke about my bike-riding habit being a natural consequence of my ancestry, but I’d been told we were part Dutch, not Danish; maybe the Dutch is inside that “Germanic Europe” slice. And I had no idea we had this much Scottish ancestry. The stories and the DNA don’t fully align, which tells me that over the years people chose some stories to carry on and some to set down.
I have to be grateful for ALL of this because it all resulted in me being here, now, with all of you. I think most often of the immediate gifts, like my grandma teaching me to knit, tat, and bowl; the gardening skills I learned from my dad that must have grown out of my paternal grandfather’s work as a truck farmer growing and selling vegetables; my cooking, canning, and sewing abilities that are gifts from my mom; my sense of responsibility that my parents taught me by example.
I appreciate this question for prompting me to go back and look at those DNA results and think about how they do and don’t quite match up with stories. We all have a past that’s hidden from us by time and chance, and yet here we are, together.
Barb, this is all so interesting! I am curious about how/where you got this DNA testing. I don’t know a whole lot about my ancestors and would be curious to have this done.
I got it done through Ancestry.com because my older sister did. If you’re interested in genealogy that’s a spot with a ton of records (founded by the Mormon church but it isn’t a religious site per se). People trace their family trees and upload records. The DNA and records come together in your profile, with a certain amount of information free and more information if you start paying a monthly free.
When they do the DNA testing they tell you who you’re matched with and to what degree. I will say this generates letters to advice columns because people discover family members they didn’t know they had, learn they’re adopted, and find out other family secrets.
I sometimes wish that I knew more about/felt more connection with my ancestors. I don’t really know much beyond my grandparents/great grandparents. The ancestors on my paternal grandmother’s side had a good work ethic, a strong faith, and provided a loving home for their family. I am grateful because I think some of those values seeped down the generations to me. My grandmother talked often about how my great-grandmother valued the book “Pollyanna”. While that term is usually used derisively, I think that my grandmother did instill in me a desire to see the positive sides of situations. The ancestors on my paternal grandfather’s side were more dysfunctional. They were missionaries in China (where my grandfather grew up), and my grandfather experienced the family and their interpretation of religion as controlling and dysfunctional. I am grateful to my grandfather for breaking free from his family conditioning and choosing to think for himself. I think that value (of thinking for oneself) has seeped down to me as well. I know less about the ancestors on my mom’s side. My grandmother died when I was in third grade and my grandfather didn’t talk much about his family. My grandfather lived most of his life in California. He seemed to appreciate the multiculturalism of California. He met friends from many different cultural backgrounds through his work, and in his later years, one of his favorite foods was menudo. After my grandmother died, a family who had immigrated to California from Peru “adopted” him and took him into their home to live with them as their adopted grandfather. They were a wonderful family, and I am so grateful to them. (my mom was very supportive of my grandpa as well, but he did not want to move to Colorado to live near/with us). I am grateful to my grandfather for his appreciation for the many different people of different cultures living near him. Thank you for this question! I have often felt baffled when people ask me to connect with my ancestors, and it was helpful to have time to deeply think about this question.
I am grateful first that their lives allowed mine. I’m also grateful that their drive to do more and their strong, resilient nature has been passed to me. I’m grateful for my mother’s mother’s side… the kinder, gentler side of the family. I know my grandma M is where I got my open heart from. And I know that my birth father’s mom is where I got my adventurous side. I’m grateful I got to have a bit of a relationship with her when I was in college.
I realized many years ago that I can call on the strength of my ancestors and I do so often. I’m pasting a R. Rohr Meditation that I saved in 2024 that addresses the power of one’s ancestry.
Ancestors and Wisdom Richard Rohr Meditation 8/23/24
Choctaw elder and retired Episcopal bishop Steven Charleston explains how Indigenous elders carry the wisdom of the past in service of the present and future:
“Elders are a people of the future. My culture respects the elders not only because of their wisdom, but because of their determination. The elders are tough. They have survived many struggles and many losses. Now, as they look ahead to another generation, they are determined that their sacrifices will not have been in vain, that their children’s children will not grow up in a world more broken than the one they sought to repair. The elders are voices of justice. They are champions for the earth. They defend the conscience of the community. We follow the elders because they have a passion for tomorrow. They are people of the future, not the past. Tradition is not about staying the same. It is not about continuing spiritual business as usual. Native American tradition is the path to the future because it is how we constantly renew what we have. Faith is about making all things new. All things—not just a few. It is about transforming life in the kiva [communal home] by reimagining it and recreating it until life emerges, just as our past reshaped to fit our future…”
“The ancestors carried us. They were as troubled as we, our ancestors, those who came before us, and for the same reasons: fear of illness, a broken heart, fights in the family, the threat of another war. Corrupt politicians walked their stage and natural disasters appeared without warning. And yet they came through, carrying us within them, through the grief and struggle, through the personal pain and the public chaos, finding their way with love and faith, not giving in to despair, but walking upright until their last step was taken. My culture does not honor the ancestors as a quaint spirituality of the past, but as a living source of strength for the present. They did it and so will we. ”
Charleston speaks of how the wisdom of our ancestors can still guide us:
“Our ancestors in the faith are not only still here for us, but they actively seek to help us in every way they can. Our eternal grandparents. They are watching over us, all those who have gone before. They are our ancestors, and they have seen enough in their own lives to know what we are going through. They have survived economic collapse, social unrest, political struggle, and great wars that raged for years. Now, from their place of peace, they seek to send their wisdom into our hearts, to guide us to reconciliation, to show us our mistakes before we make them. Their love for us is strong. Their faith in us is certain. When times get hard, sit quietly and open your spirit to the eternal grandparents, who are still a part of your spiritual world. Receive their blessing, for their light will lead you home. “
This line is a bit heartbreaking for me right now: “that their children’s children will not grow up in a world more broken than the one they sought to repair.” Autocrats are breaking so much, every day.
In a reply to Carol Ann’s comment on this sharing I mention the training I went through from an elder of the Skokomish Tribe. One of the things I carried away from that was the deep patience and persistence expressed in “It took a long time for these problems to develop. It’s going to take a long time to solve them. We’ve been here for thousands of years and we’re not going away.”
Carol!!!!!! Thank you! This hits a perfect note for me right now! I have had my own dose of confusion about just where do I “fit in” to my current phase? … my current life situation….. and I love this concept of embracing being “an elder” who can be a person about the future! I can help “MY kiva”… my communities (and I use the plural there intentionally, because it is not one single community that I belong to) – by encouraging and acting from my own imagination —- “reimagine and recreate” life in the communities I live in to provide more life to emerge for those people in that community! WHAT A PRIVILEGE!!!!! What an open-door opportunity to be and do what I would choose and happily do if I had that opportunity, …and I do!!! I may not be able to express this delight of perspective I am finding, but I can delight in it anyway and thank you for sharing this essay and tell you that it is of great value to me right now. I’m not an ancestor YET!… but I can be the elder who wants to be part of the path to the future; who can hold a passion for tomorrow, can help renew what we have. You can tell, I really love this essay! “Tradition is not about staying the same”. Use your wisdom of the past in service to the present and future of your communities of today. Of course that is the nugget, but how refreshing to have it consolidated, polished, wrapped up and handed over as a precious gift of knowledge. Thank you, of course!
Carol Ann, I’m glad the essay was helpful to you. I love Native American spirituality. It has taught me a lot. It is a shame that we settlers labeled them savages. They were so far ahead of us in appreciation of the earth and its many gifts.
I recently spent a full day in a training on government to government relations between tribes and state government, taught by an elder of one of the tribes here. He made a distinction between tradition–the way we did things–and culture, which can change over time while remembering and honoring tradition. With this in mind, I can think of tradition as a gift from my ancestors and culture as my contribution to carry forward what they gave me into new contexts.
I am grateful for them to have passed on the thread of life; I am grateful for my parents having done the best they could to be parents for their kids and trying for us to avoid the suffering they had to bear; for working hard and suffering difficult times to earn the money needed for all of us; for caring whenever there would have been a need to help us, for their wish to have us all treated fair and for the freedom to choose our profession, which both my parents did not have the chance to do and for the many things we had the chance to learn as kids already. They did what they could to make our family boat swim in the rough times after WWII, and for this I am deeply grateful. It all inspired me to be active and offer my possible talents and heart for passing onward to others in need. To have had the chance to overcome what has been quite difficult along the way is as well another gift given, even if it did not feel like that for a long time. I can only say Thank you to my anchestors and to all concerned. I am deeply grateful to all of you.
Mary, I definitely have them. Ngoc has said it before too. I’ve always been close to my family, especially during my childhood. Becoming more comfortable in my own skin helps me work on my Vietnamese bringing me back to where it all started.
When I think of my ancestry, the first word that comes to mind is chaos. In my recent ancestry, my ancestors I can remember from my childhood, alcoholism was prévalant and problematic to say the least. I learned numerous work arounds, self-taught, to stay relatively safe and out of the way. My youthful observations taught me, « this can’t be right ». And so miraculously, I chose a very different path than most of my siblings and relatives. In some ways that was really hard, not being tribal. In other ways the freedom was glorious.
One trait I value a great deal from my ancestry is a strong work ethic. It has served me well. Resilience is evident, courage too. A bit of healthy risk-taking is in the mix. So as most things in life, my ancestry is a mixed bag, and it all resulted in me being here today, to experience and create this life as I choose. For that, I am deeply grateful.
I am grateful for their courage to leave the only homes they knew and start new lives here. I feel doubly blessed that I know their names and where they settled.
That my ancestors continued on through this mystery of life and my life force, my energy, my essence sprung forth some 67 years past. For this I am grateful, for life, the gift of one more day, all due to past lives of the ancianos. May all encounter some love and peace today.
When I was a child, I was one of the only black people in my elementary school. My father had done well and wanted to live in the suburbs. He wanted me to go to the best schools. This was post civil-rights in the 80s and there was an attitude of “there is no more racism”— but, that doesn’t mean you’re welcome. During history class, I’d cringe when talked about slavery and Jim Crow. Everyone stared at me. In adulthood I shifted my consciousness. I learned about my history and ancestry. Now, I am so proud of the survivors who made it against all odds so I can have this one beautiful life. I owe it to them to strive and thrive.
Thank you Avril for sharing your family story. I was exposed to many different cultures growing up with exchange students staying with us and my parents adopted my youngest brother from S. Korea when he was 8. I now work for a company where I am a minority but all feels very normal to me. I love hearing about families stories, some times uplifting but other times lots of struggle.
I grew up
not knowing what racism was,
dear Avril . . .
my family had people from all over the world
come to stay with us,
people of all colours and cultural backgrounds,
and I just thought of them as people.
It wasn’t until I was older,
that I’d catch snippets of news about lynchings and segregation and such . . .
the discrimination,
the ku klux klan,
the beatings,
the sheer brutality of those days.
And now,
I can’t believe I grew up in that bubble.
I am grateful you are here to tell your story,
I pray for you and your beautiful life
with love . . .
sparrow ♥
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I am grateful for my Irish ancestors which make up most of my ancestry but I also have some German (my last name), Scottish and Welch. Growing up we really didn’t talk about our ancestry that much. I just remember st patrick’s day as a big day and we were a family of Catholic faith. I did learn from my Dad my Mom’s father was 100% Irish and that side of the family loved their Irish music sessions. I was raised with music, played guitar and clarinet and because of that I have a huge appreciation of music. I was also raised with work ethic as very important, my Dad is an Engineer and my Mom was a nurse. They both got their degrees essentially on their own. As a child we moved a lot because of my Dad’s career so I did not grow up around a lot of family but did have a special relationship with my Nana who was also very career minded. She was an Executive secretary for General Electric which was a big deal back in those days.
GE is still a big deal, I think. Bet your Nana heard plenty of the inside scoop of the capitalistic world in a position like that, dear Robin Ann.
. . . a collection of ne’er do wells
and heroes . . .
I am grateful that because of them
I am here,
and have inherited all sorts of things
from them,
including some of my better traits. ♥
I’m thinking of my ancestors in several different ways. The stories my parents and maternal grandmother told about where they came from, which included my grandma emigrating from England at the age of four and my dad’s parents coming west from North Carolina. The more distant family tree with various connections, including (supposedly) the composer Schubert (I liked that one because I played piano) and someone named de Mille (never knew whether we were related to the film director). The heritage, cultures, and foodways that came down through all of that. Feeling very connected to my Welsh ancestry (maternal grandfather’s side) when I took a class in Middle Welsh in college as a linguistics major.
Then there’s the longer story, the unknown ancestors I only recently learned about by getting my DNA tested. They describe my family tree in terms of “ancestral journeys” over the past 300 years. Their journeys are labeled as North Carolina Settlers (Blue Ridge Mountains, Wautauga River Valley); Northwestern North Carolina (Wautauga Lake); Southern Appalachia (Catawba, Lincoln, and Gaston County, North Carolina); and the Midlands in England (Staffordshire, Cheshire, Northern Shropshire, Northern & Central Staffordshire & Cheshire).
My overall genetic mix reflects a lot of movement and pairing up from a broader geographic range: 39% England & Northwestern Europe, 27% Scotland, 20% Germanic Europe, 6% Denmark, 6% Wales, 2% Ireland. I joke about my bike-riding habit being a natural consequence of my ancestry, but I’d been told we were part Dutch, not Danish; maybe the Dutch is inside that “Germanic Europe” slice. And I had no idea we had this much Scottish ancestry. The stories and the DNA don’t fully align, which tells me that over the years people chose some stories to carry on and some to set down.
I have to be grateful for ALL of this because it all resulted in me being here, now, with all of you. I think most often of the immediate gifts, like my grandma teaching me to knit, tat, and bowl; the gardening skills I learned from my dad that must have grown out of my paternal grandfather’s work as a truck farmer growing and selling vegetables; my cooking, canning, and sewing abilities that are gifts from my mom; my sense of responsibility that my parents taught me by example.
I appreciate this question for prompting me to go back and look at those DNA results and think about how they do and don’t quite match up with stories. We all have a past that’s hidden from us by time and chance, and yet here we are, together.
Lovely reflection and sharing, Barb. Thank you.
Barb, this is all so interesting! I am curious about how/where you got this DNA testing. I don’t know a whole lot about my ancestors and would be curious to have this done.
I got it done through Ancestry.com because my older sister did. If you’re interested in genealogy that’s a spot with a ton of records (founded by the Mormon church but it isn’t a religious site per se). People trace their family trees and upload records. The DNA and records come together in your profile, with a certain amount of information free and more information if you start paying a monthly free.
When they do the DNA testing they tell you who you’re matched with and to what degree. I will say this generates letters to advice columns because people discover family members they didn’t know they had, learn they’re adopted, and find out other family secrets.
Barb, I know a few Schubert Impromptus on the piano.
I sometimes wish that I knew more about/felt more connection with my ancestors. I don’t really know much beyond my grandparents/great grandparents. The ancestors on my paternal grandmother’s side had a good work ethic, a strong faith, and provided a loving home for their family. I am grateful because I think some of those values seeped down the generations to me. My grandmother talked often about how my great-grandmother valued the book “Pollyanna”. While that term is usually used derisively, I think that my grandmother did instill in me a desire to see the positive sides of situations. The ancestors on my paternal grandfather’s side were more dysfunctional. They were missionaries in China (where my grandfather grew up), and my grandfather experienced the family and their interpretation of religion as controlling and dysfunctional. I am grateful to my grandfather for breaking free from his family conditioning and choosing to think for himself. I think that value (of thinking for oneself) has seeped down to me as well. I know less about the ancestors on my mom’s side. My grandmother died when I was in third grade and my grandfather didn’t talk much about his family. My grandfather lived most of his life in California. He seemed to appreciate the multiculturalism of California. He met friends from many different cultural backgrounds through his work, and in his later years, one of his favorite foods was menudo. After my grandmother died, a family who had immigrated to California from Peru “adopted” him and took him into their home to live with them as their adopted grandfather. They were a wonderful family, and I am so grateful to them. (my mom was very supportive of my grandpa as well, but he did not want to move to Colorado to live near/with us). I am grateful to my grandfather for his appreciation for the many different people of different cultures living near him. Thank you for this question! I have often felt baffled when people ask me to connect with my ancestors, and it was helpful to have time to deeply think about this question.
So enjoyable to read, Elizabeth. Thank you.
I am grateful first that their lives allowed mine. I’m also grateful that their drive to do more and their strong, resilient nature has been passed to me. I’m grateful for my mother’s mother’s side… the kinder, gentler side of the family. I know my grandma M is where I got my open heart from. And I know that my birth father’s mom is where I got my adventurous side. I’m grateful I got to have a bit of a relationship with her when I was in college.
I realized many years ago that I can call on the strength of my ancestors and I do so often. I’m pasting a R. Rohr Meditation that I saved in 2024 that addresses the power of one’s ancestry.
Ancestors and Wisdom Richard Rohr Meditation 8/23/24
Choctaw elder and retired Episcopal bishop Steven Charleston explains how Indigenous elders carry the wisdom of the past in service of the present and future:
“Elders are a people of the future. My culture respects the elders not only because of their wisdom, but because of their determination. The elders are tough. They have survived many struggles and many losses. Now, as they look ahead to another generation, they are determined that their sacrifices will not have been in vain, that their children’s children will not grow up in a world more broken than the one they sought to repair. The elders are voices of justice. They are champions for the earth. They defend the conscience of the community. We follow the elders because they have a passion for tomorrow. They are people of the future, not the past. Tradition is not about staying the same. It is not about continuing spiritual business as usual. Native American tradition is the path to the future because it is how we constantly renew what we have. Faith is about making all things new. All things—not just a few. It is about transforming life in the kiva [communal home] by reimagining it and recreating it until life emerges, just as our past reshaped to fit our future…”
“The ancestors carried us. They were as troubled as we, our ancestors, those who came before us, and for the same reasons: fear of illness, a broken heart, fights in the family, the threat of another war. Corrupt politicians walked their stage and natural disasters appeared without warning. And yet they came through, carrying us within them, through the grief and struggle, through the personal pain and the public chaos, finding their way with love and faith, not giving in to despair, but walking upright until their last step was taken. My culture does not honor the ancestors as a quaint spirituality of the past, but as a living source of strength for the present. They did it and so will we. ”
Charleston speaks of how the wisdom of our ancestors can still guide us:
“Our ancestors in the faith are not only still here for us, but they actively seek to help us in every way they can. Our eternal grandparents. They are watching over us, all those who have gone before. They are our ancestors, and they have seen enough in their own lives to know what we are going through. They have survived economic collapse, social unrest, political struggle, and great wars that raged for years. Now, from their place of peace, they seek to send their wisdom into our hearts, to guide us to reconciliation, to show us our mistakes before we make them. Their love for us is strong. Their faith in us is certain. When times get hard, sit quietly and open your spirit to the eternal grandparents, who are still a part of your spiritual world. Receive their blessing, for their light will lead you home. “
This line is a bit heartbreaking for me right now: “that their children’s children will not grow up in a world more broken than the one they sought to repair.” Autocrats are breaking so much, every day.
In a reply to Carol Ann’s comment on this sharing I mention the training I went through from an elder of the Skokomish Tribe. One of the things I carried away from that was the deep patience and persistence expressed in “It took a long time for these problems to develop. It’s going to take a long time to solve them. We’ve been here for thousands of years and we’re not going away.”
So true, Barb.
Carol!!!!!! Thank you! This hits a perfect note for me right now! I have had my own dose of confusion about just where do I “fit in” to my current phase? … my current life situation….. and I love this concept of embracing being “an elder” who can be a person about the future! I can help “MY kiva”… my communities (and I use the plural there intentionally, because it is not one single community that I belong to) – by encouraging and acting from my own imagination —- “reimagine and recreate” life in the communities I live in to provide more life to emerge for those people in that community! WHAT A PRIVILEGE!!!!! What an open-door opportunity to be and do what I would choose and happily do if I had that opportunity, …and I do!!! I may not be able to express this delight of perspective I am finding, but I can delight in it anyway and thank you for sharing this essay and tell you that it is of great value to me right now. I’m not an ancestor YET!… but I can be the elder who wants to be part of the path to the future; who can hold a passion for tomorrow, can help renew what we have. You can tell, I really love this essay! “Tradition is not about staying the same”. Use your wisdom of the past in service to the present and future of your communities of today. Of course that is the nugget, but how refreshing to have it consolidated, polished, wrapped up and handed over as a precious gift of knowledge. Thank you, of course!
Carol Ann, I’m glad the essay was helpful to you. I love Native American spirituality. It has taught me a lot. It is a shame that we settlers labeled them savages. They were so far ahead of us in appreciation of the earth and its many gifts.
I recently spent a full day in a training on government to government relations between tribes and state government, taught by an elder of one of the tribes here. He made a distinction between tradition–the way we did things–and culture, which can change over time while remembering and honoring tradition. With this in mind, I can think of tradition as a gift from my ancestors and culture as my contribution to carry forward what they gave me into new contexts.
My father’s side was the professional, career mined entity.
My mother’s side was the gentle entity.
I am grateful I am a blend.
A perfect blend,
dear Yram . . . 🙂
I am grateful for them to have passed on the thread of life; I am grateful for my parents having done the best they could to be parents for their kids and trying for us to avoid the suffering they had to bear; for working hard and suffering difficult times to earn the money needed for all of us; for caring whenever there would have been a need to help us, for their wish to have us all treated fair and for the freedom to choose our profession, which both my parents did not have the chance to do and for the many things we had the chance to learn as kids already. They did what they could to make our family boat swim in the rough times after WWII, and for this I am deeply grateful. It all inspired me to be active and offer my possible talents and heart for passing onward to others in need. To have had the chance to overcome what has been quite difficult along the way is as well another gift given, even if it did not feel like that for a long time. I can only say Thank you to my anchestors and to all concerned. I am deeply grateful to all of you.
Very tender, Ose. Thank you.❤️
My dad’s side is gentle while my mom’s side is known to be optimistic and outgoing.
Wonderful qualities on both sides.
I can see these traits in you, Loc.
Mary, I definitely have them. Ngoc has said it before too. I’ve always been close to my family, especially during my childhood. Becoming more comfortable in my own skin helps me work on my Vietnamese bringing me back to where it all started.
When I think of my ancestry, the first word that comes to mind is chaos. In my recent ancestry, my ancestors I can remember from my childhood, alcoholism was prévalant and problematic to say the least. I learned numerous work arounds, self-taught, to stay relatively safe and out of the way. My youthful observations taught me, « this can’t be right ». And so miraculously, I chose a very different path than most of my siblings and relatives. In some ways that was really hard, not being tribal. In other ways the freedom was glorious.
One trait I value a great deal from my ancestry is a strong work ethic. It has served me well. Resilience is evident, courage too. A bit of healthy risk-taking is in the mix. So as most things in life, my ancestry is a mixed bag, and it all resulted in me being here today, to experience and create this life as I choose. For that, I am deeply grateful.
I am grateful for their courage to leave the only homes they knew and start new lives here. I feel doubly blessed that I know their names and where they settled.
I have Irish, German, PA Dutch ancestry … food, sense of humor, family all come to mind.
Loc and Ngoc – Happy National Minnesota Day! https://nationaltoday.com/national-minnesota-day/
I also appreciate many times Carol has mentioned in her reflections about calling forth ancestors when needed, I love that.
Thanks, Michele.
That my ancestors continued on through this mystery of life and my life force, my energy, my essence sprung forth some 67 years past. For this I am grateful, for life, the gift of one more day, all due to past lives of the ancianos. May all encounter some love and peace today.
When I was a child, I was one of the only black people in my elementary school. My father had done well and wanted to live in the suburbs. He wanted me to go to the best schools. This was post civil-rights in the 80s and there was an attitude of “there is no more racism”— but, that doesn’t mean you’re welcome. During history class, I’d cringe when talked about slavery and Jim Crow. Everyone stared at me. In adulthood I shifted my consciousness. I learned about my history and ancestry. Now, I am so proud of the survivors who made it against all odds so I can have this one beautiful life. I owe it to them to strive and thrive.
Dear Avril, that sounds so difficult. I am so sorry you had to go through that,
especially through your childhood years. Mary
Thank you Avril for sharing your family story. I was exposed to many different cultures growing up with exchange students staying with us and my parents adopted my youngest brother from S. Korea when he was 8. I now work for a company where I am a minority but all feels very normal to me. I love hearing about families stories, some times uplifting but other times lots of struggle.
I grew up
not knowing what racism was,
dear Avril . . .
my family had people from all over the world
come to stay with us,
people of all colours and cultural backgrounds,
and I just thought of them as people.
It wasn’t until I was older,
that I’d catch snippets of news about lynchings and segregation and such . . .
the discrimination,
the ku klux klan,
the beatings,
the sheer brutality of those days.
And now,
I can’t believe I grew up in that bubble.
I am grateful you are here to tell your story,
I pray for you and your beautiful life
with love . . .
sparrow ♥
such a profound journey, Avril. thank you for sharing this🙏.
Love you, Avril…thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
Living your life to honor their efforts and lives, beautiful Avril.
I’m grateful for my ancestors, for the language I speak, how I look, and the last name that doesn’t change when I marry and get my U.S. citizenship.
My Ngoc, you have beautiful long black hair, and you have a natural sweet Vietnamese voice too.