The art of seeking ancestors creates many questions, no? When I began my journey into the past, my reasons were purely personal. My memories are dear to me, and the story of my life should not be left untold. So, who is the story for? Who cares to remember me? First of all, I want to know me better, and I absolutely love the process of meeting myself by researching and remembering our ancestors. I recommend the process for everyone, and I hope my work offers something valuable to people dear to me.
I have always been a writer. I was the kid who loved getting journals for my birthday, and have kept many a poem and memory alive because I wrote it down at the time. The audience was myself, and the secret thoughts I shared stayed safely on the pages. This was the first step in my long journey of self awareness. I remember who I was, so I remember how I felt, what I discovered, and why I changed my emotional fabric over time. My stories flow from the center out, guiding me from the Me to the We of our family and ancestors.
Pain and Love are great teachers in the journey of knowing thyself. Safe to say that time softens pain, and adds the flavors of appreciation, tenderness, and kindness to the adventure of love. In the early chapters of life, there is innocence, and discovering the complex beauty of family love. We grow up, earning honor and wounds. We cultivate pleasures and habits, tend to cares and duties, and exercise our divine human superpowers. At some point, we look for our purpose, partners, and, once again, family. The rest is an unfolding drama in the history of time. Learn and grow, follow the bliss, eat-love-pray… we find a formula that works and get to the business of sharing our gifts with each other and the greater world.
Life is an adventure. We don’t know the outcome before we begin. We make mistakes. We adjust our expectations. There are opportunities and accidents, victories and setbacks. Realizing that the steps we took got us to where we are now, it is just fine to appreciate life’s perfection as an afterthought. As MrsFuture, I can testify that the best of intentions are only an arrow cocked and pointed at a star. Let it loose and it will take you as far as that one arrow can fly. Next step, new arrow and maybe a new star, previously not visible from where you are now. That’s what we call “progress.”
Like a movie, first you meet the characters, and then you find the complications. There are no shortcuts. Avoiding emotions only delays their lessons, possibly forever. So, I advise a life of gusto. Better to get old with interesting memories than to stop before you reach a dream or two.
So, enough about Me for now. This offering of words is to my family. I love you all, dear intimates, beloveds, siblings, parents, grand parents and all your children and their children. I thank you for my life and our family. The human beings who lived and died during the last seven generations of living memory are imprinted in my genes. I can feel them in my dreams. I imagine their lives with the help of scrapbooks and photos, and chats with rels who remember their stories. Their choices about who to love, where to live, and what to worship created precious memories from the chaos of a world lost to history. I now hold up my Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass, sit with the internet and find some clues in old newspapers and Ancestry dot com. We are OFF, destination, personal HISTORY!
TimeIsArt 