Intangible inheritance from our ancestors
As the wheel of time turns away from long summer days, ushering us into darker and colder months, our gaze naturally turns inward. When we shift from doing to observing, we often discover that our inner landscape is populated with patterns, beliefs and values inherited from our ancestors. By ancestors, I don't mean just our biological predecessors who brought us into this world, but ancestors who shaped our upbringing, culture, and even our land. We are always born into a place shaped, informed, and created by our ancestors, who may or may not be our blood relatives.
After my parents died, I spent a significant amount of time sorting out their possessions. As I gazed at the two lives' worth of carefully collected items, I couldn't help but wonder about the stories behind each one. By choosing what to keep, my parents were crafting a narrative about their lives, about what mattered to them and what was worth preserving. This human need to use material culture to tell stories about who we are, where we come from, and what matters to us is a universal trait, transcending geographical and cultural boundaries.
This poignant work of sorting out my late parents' possessions provided a unique insight into their intimate choices, values and beliefs. Simultaneously, this has also made me question the immaterial values, choices and beliefs my parents passed on to me years ago. How much of who we think we are comes from our own beliefs, and how much our perception of self and the world has been shaped by this intangible inheritance passed down from our ancestors? The more I tried to unpick seemingly my own values and beliefs, the more it seemed that these weren't mine to start with. Our ancestors – familial, cultural, land and many others - condition us to believe particular stories about who we are and who we can or should become, what we should believe and value and strive towards to in life.
Stories shape us. We need stories to map our life’s journey. We are constantly telling stories in multiple ways, sometimes repeating beliefs passed down to us from our ancestors, other times recreating them with our own twists and turns to the ancestral weaving. The point isn’t about judging the content of what has been passed down to us. No, the point is to develop awareness that a lot of who we are and what we value, believe in and stand for isn’t necessarily ours alone. We are just one of many pieces in the giant tapestry of ancestors that shape the narrative of our human condition and existence.
The more we deepen our understanding of our ancestors—not just familial but cultural and spiritual ancestors of the land where we come from and the land we feel connected to—the better we will become at navigating our life's journey and knowing when to move the rudder to change the course of the journey. The journey isn't set in stone, but it is shaped by our choices, thoughts, words, and emotions that feed into the collective. With each thought and emotion that we release into the collective, we are recreating our ancestral tapestry. We are active participants in creating and reshaping our ancestral narrative. Therefore, we owe it to ourselves to let go of ancestral stories and beliefs that do not feel authentic to us and to hear the voice of our soul. Your voice counts. Use these quieter, darker months to tune in with yourself and your ancestors. Light a candle, say a prayer, or just sit in silent reflection, observing your life’s journey. Start paying attention to your thoughts and emotions. Are they authentically yours? Are you aligned with them? Just observe, do not judge. If something doesn’t feel right any longer, let go of it. We are not bound by our ancestral intangible inheritance. Each thought and emotion that we create feeds back into the ancestral loop. What kind of ancestral inheritance are you creating?
