Ancestors, wounds, life

 

What if the deeper currents shaping our lives come through the unfinished lives of our ancestors?

Perhaps, we come into this life, are given this gift of life, not only for our own purpose but to help heal some of the wounds of our ancestors, those lives that came before us and made our lives possible.  I have always felt myself to be carrying some of my ancestor’s struggle, their despair, as well as their hope.  Jung has said that the child will be called to live the unlived life of the parent.  What remains unresolved in the parent, the grandparent, the tribe will enter the child’s being.  New science bears truth to these insights showing us how trauma from generations passed alter the DNA that is passed through the body. 

We have the chance to heal some of the trauma that has been passed down to us and through us.  Healing pulls more light and healing into our world rather than more darkness.  It is our choice. It will require the courage and faith to choose a little more kindness over rage, generosity over selfishness, medicine over violence. We choose to unwind the hard knot of separateness allowing grief to make our hearts more tender.

Whether we recognize it or not, these burdens passed down to us will shape our lives in fundamental and primary ways.  The career, the spouse, the way we console a fraught baby.  Becoming cognizant of these unlived lives running through us may give us the courage to let the self-harm, the prejudice, the revenge stop with us.

While these burdens are hard to carry, they also allow us to know our ancestors more intimately and deeply.  For me, it is the father who suffered from depression and anxiety, the grandmother who took her own life at only 32, the grandfather who crossed the ocean as a stowaway in the belly of a boat to get to the U.S. They have taken up residence in my empty heart, calling me to live a life with more textures, paradox, and compassion.  

I too will leave behind unfinished business, wounds that never healed, darkness unleashed through my small-mindedness, willfulness, and ignorance.  May my left behind imperfections give life to the possibility for more healing and light in the world.