Relationship to Ancestors
Our discussion ranged from seeing the importance, difficulty and responsibility of changing qualities of our lineages - to also deep heartfelt appreciation for their strength. One participant noted that but for the courage of some ancestors, we would not be here in some cases. We discussed the role of the ancestors in our lives and asked, were they looking over us? Could they be helpful to us? Did their “successes” make them more worthy in the afterlife? Did their struggles make them sources of wisdom or were they limited in their ability to advise? All-in-all, the discussion allowed me a spaciousness to be with all of it, without cutting off or accepting and I left with a feeling of deeper connection and support with both the women at the dinner and the people of my ancestral lines. - More to come in the podcast (coming soon!)
Wisdom Quotes:
(1) The challenges of your ancestors, are gifts to you. – Angel Grant.
(2) Healing comes when the individual remembers his or her identity—the purpose chosen in the world of ancestral wisdom—and reconnects with that world of Spirit. -Malidoma Patrice Some
(3) "To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root." – Chinese Proverb
(4) I am my ancestors' wildest dreams." – Unknown
(5) "We are linked by blood, and blood is memory without language." – Joyce Carol Oates
(6) "We need to haunt the house of history and listen anew to the ancestors' wisdom." – Maya Angelou
(7) "Walking. I am listening to a deeper way. Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. Be still, they say. Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands." – Linda Hogan
(8) “When we illuminate the road back to our ancestors, they have a way of reaching out, of manifesting themselves...sometimes even physically.”― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina
(9) “Many African societies divide humans into three categories: those still alive on the earth, the sasha, and the zamani. The recently departed whose time on earth overlapped with people still here are the sasha, the living-dead. They are not wholly dead, for they still live in the memories of the living, who can call them to mind, create their likeness in art, and bring them to life in anecdote. When the last person to know an ancestor dies, that ancestor leaves the sasha for the zamani, the dead. As generalised ancestors, the zamani are not forgotten but revered. Many … can be recalled by name. But they are not the living-dead. There is a difference.”― James W Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
(10) "Too many people spend their lives being dutiful descendants instead of good ancestors. The responsibility of each generation is not to please their predecessors. It's to improve things for their offspring." — Adam Grant
(11) "Family pathology rolls from generation to generation... until one person in one generation has the courage to turn and face the flames. That person brings peace to their ancestors and spares all the children that follow." — Unknown
