Everything Makes Sense Now
(and when it doesn't)
On the messiness of where we come from and being wrong on the internet.
I have been thinking a lot about how I more to share about lessons I learned in Southern Italy.
What keeps me from writing is that I'm afraid of being wrong, or ignorant. I want to give glimpses from my travels, while not wanting to be wrong on the internet.
It's one thing to be wrong in a conversation with another person one on one. It's inevitable, we all do it. Yet we live in the age of aquarius ~ the information age, and we are often inadvertently standing at a microphone.
I worry about being canceled. I trust in the power of adrienne maree brown's essay We Will Not Cancel Us and how "the internet is forever" and the last thing I want to do is spread mis-information. I think if I start writing about my trip, and how it's shifted my connection to who I am, I might stumble into a long research project or reference an epic of history in an irreverent brushed-off, fleeting way. Or worse, hurt or offend someone!
There are so many reasons to not write, and yet the stories and the people and the places keep coming back to me, asking to be shared.
Ancestor Season
As the September full moon ushers in Mid-Autumn, I'm noting even more the urge to share, in particular about the importance of ancestor work. As the days shorten, a majority of ancient cultures mark this time as a period of going-in, witnessing our grief and honoring the beloved dead.
In this season of honoring transitions and life it's self, I'm called to share more of my thoughts here soon, with the caveat that I might be wrong.
I might share in a way that is misunderstood, wrong, or incomplete. I might change my mind, and I'm offering all of this in the spirit of being in community with you. Of being willing to try to articulate these thoughts and feelings about ancestor work, plants, community, healing and land.
Most importantly, I want to exemplify the work of doing ancestor work.
I want to exemplify how messy and how important it can be.
Ancestor Work
In recent years, largely due to the development of DNA technology, it's easier to learn about our biological ancestors with a fee and a quick turn-around (a style that provides information that can be helpful, yet I'm less interested in the precise people I come from and more of the cultures, land and traditions, of course these two things are intrinsically connected).
What I've learned from my work with Erin Langly, Marybeth Bonfiglio and Kara Wood, is that there is another way to learn the ways of our ancestors.
When we do the work slowly, there is authenticity in our lived connections. Almost as if slowing down is part of the medicine. This is a big way I see herbs working too.
I have done this work, called ancestor work, ancestral remembrance or the work of an ancestralist, for about ten years now, and I feel as though I've just dipped my toe.
This work is healing work. It's about understanding who are and where we come from. Within our histories, there are often lies or family secrets. Information has been obscured for various reasons and while we can do traditional research from books, online or by sitting at the foot of our elders, there are other ways of knowing.
Potential ancestor portals include:
the flavor and cultivation of herbs
preparing and eating traditional foods
ceremony and ritual
listening to our intuition
reflecting on our dreams
fleeting connections that happen with strangers
learning geography
understanding ecology of place
the brass tacks of history