Bread for the Ancestors
A story and an invitation.
I’ve been working with my friend Sara Taylor off and on over the last few years. One aspect of her work involves looking at events in recent family history and further back through ancestral lineages. Following an inquiry after a recent session, I logged into Ancestry, and saw they had updated their dna profiles.
One of the photos of Ireland where I’m (genetically) from was so lush and green and looked so much like areas around here in WA state and I thought that seemed fitting.
A couple days later I was talking to one of my besties, my oldest friend of 30+ years, who is going to Ireland to get married in a couple months. Turns out we have lineage back to some of the same small areas in Ireland.
My partner and I have been watching Somebody Feed Phil. It is a delightful show I saw someone recommend for “feel good” shows. (It is is so good, highly recommend) The Dublin episode came on and I was inspired to look on the map as he traveled around and find where my gr. great grandparents were born in relation to where he was traveling.
I was inspired by the Irish breakfast and soda bread a woman made for him.
I made some Irish soda bread from a recipe called “Grandma’s Irish soda bread”. I’ve never really been a bread baker, I didn’t join the sourdough movement during the pandemic. It felt slightly awkward and messy, but it turned out amazing.
I made another loaf this morning, with intentionally connecting to my Irish Ancestors, thinking of my grandmother who traveled there often and was deep into genealogy and my gr. great grandmother who was born there, who my mom was named after.
I pondered the difference it makes to connect with immigrant ancestors, to embody the lineage of those from outside of this country. To create with my hands, the food of some of my lineage. To eat the food and honor not only my ancestors, but honor those of the land I inhabit. To honor that I may have been born in this country, but I am only here because my ancestors were immigrants.
There are people that so desperately want to hold on to the idea of ownership of this land that they’re willing to harm others to try to claim something that isn’t even theirs. They deny connection to their ancestors that weren’t born here, denying parts of their own existence. They don’t even claim what is theirs but want to take from others instead, seemingly in denial that their own family members were once immigrants.
I was inspired to create this invitation. To make a food of your ancestors.
If you don’t feel any connection to any particular line, I invite you to pause, close your eyes, allow some type of food to make itself known. Make that. Trust that it honors someone whose existence made your existence possible. Intention can be powerful, even if we don’t know all the details.
If you’re inspired, do some research. Look up your genealogy. Ask some relatives about their parent’s favorite foods or old stories. Talk to a friend and honor their ancestors if you don’t feel ready to honor yours. Pick your favorite food and research the history, where did it originate from? Connect with a past life. Watch Somebody Feed Phil and intuitively pick an episode of a country you’ve always wanted to visit. Get creative.
Most people in the US have some kind of known lineage outside of this country. I wasn’t raised with traditions from any particular culture. My grandmother I mentioned, I rarely saw her. I’ve never traveled to Ireland. I don’t claim to be Irish. I have a mix of Irish, English, Scottish, French, French Canadian, a bit of Danish, “north central Europe” and oooh, Sardinia, like a tiny fraction, and probably others too. I felt called and followed that call to the Irish Soda Bread.
And it’s something I want everyone to experience, especially now when being faced with the violence that is happening in our country. I think it benefits us all for those of us that come from immigrants to embody that knowledge, particularly if we’re so removed from it we don’t know where to start. It honors our ancestors, it honors our neighbors and it honors the indigenous people of this land.
And if you make some bread, a stew, or your aunt’s favorite dessert, and want to share, please do!
This is how my life works as a generator responding to things that call to me (this is a Human Design reference for those unfamiliar). I’m led to places and to do things without needing to overthink (oh but I still overthink because why not?!). I do things that I don’t know why I’m doing them and later see the result and the why, knowing that the more I trust and follow the yeses the more I feel held and supported by the unseen.
This is part of the work I like to share with people when connecting human design and relationships. We are in relationship all the time with the world around us, with the people around us. Every person has the possibility to change our experience of our world.
When it looks like everything is a chaotic mess, I feel in to what my role in these times.
My role isn’t working on the collective level, as a loud and visible activist, but on the deeply personal level, one on one with individuals providing insights that support them towards better relationships. When relationships are strong, the village and the community is strong. Healthier relationships lead to healthier individuals and healthier societies. It’s foundational work that allows for solid growth and change. I’m here to show people there is possibility in being creative, in seeing the beauty, in striving for change. It is worthy to hope, to rest, to find a relief from stress, to get stronger, find your inner alignment and integrity, embody compassion and do your best to make the world around you a more peaceful and loving place.
I don’t believe systemic change can hold if underneath people are holding on to resentment and bitterness towards their partners or parents, or in general to the people around them. The stories our mind holds about ourselves and others shape our world and so much about those stories can be rewritten. We can make choices to move towards having better relationships. And I think it can change everything.
