Today I wrote this:
And it says this:
My Family-
Past.
Your family-
Future.
Calls to you.
Honors you.
Thanks you.
I wish for your stories.
Whisper.
To me.
My family.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I don’t know about the rest of you…. but it staggers me that for every single moment of history I have had a family member living through out every historical moment. Every-single-moment.
Someone who is directly responsible for my existence-lived. Lived and loved. Thought and worked. Existed. Created. At least created life after them. That eventually led to …..me. All of the DNA carriers that resulted in me have lived through every moment of humanities existence.
I wonder about that world.
Was there an ancestor who thought about those who came before them?
Or pondered who would follow?
Did they think of generations yet to be? And contemplate the existence…..of me?
You may want to pause for a moment. That last line? The one above this one? Epic. Or at least it rhymed.
Today I wrote to them.
I wanted to reach back. Call to them. Send back a whisper.
And hopefully call a whisper forward.
And catch it as it passes me and searches out someone I contemplate the existence of.
I want their stories.
I tried to start a family tree, but it became too difficult with both my parents from Europe and pop was adopted out then taken back by his biological dad, got too messy to trace, but I am fascinated with the generations before us. I adore your title for this and send a whisper back.. Tempts some poetry in me. 🙂
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🙂 Unless every generation before us did a family tree and then saved it for us, it is SO not easy. I do love working on them though. Which always prompts my imagination and curiosity about the life the family on the tree lived.
Thank you! Whisper away!!! 🙂
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It is very interesting especially when you find things that may shock you a little 🙂 and thank you I’ll see what I can do 🙂
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It’s funny you say that, about the ‘shock’. I’ve come up with some very interesting questions concerning ours! No way to prove or disprove some of my theories….. 😉
And I’ll look forward to your whispers (at least the ones you share!).
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I think we would all have skeletons in the closet. Half the fun of searching I would think. Let’s see if I can get my muse awake before I fall asleep 😉
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Ah….that’s right! We are on opposite ends of our day! Sleep well Rambling Jen! I am now off of my bike and on to shower and work!!!
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Yes, that sentence was epic, Chatter Master… but I do visit those sames thoughts. Kinda gives you chicken skin…
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I know you do Koji. Isn’t it amazing to think of our connections, and what life was like for them? 🙂
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I agree wholeheartedly, Colleen, the whisper of ages past, they passed on the baton, as you have, of life, the chance to live, no holds barred. LIVE not just breathe. I Love your poem, it ‘calls’ to all. xPenx
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Thank you xPenx. (I love your sign off!)
“Live not just breathe” is beautiful and something I try to focus on daily. 🙂
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Thanks Colleen, I have no idea how I started my signoff, but it’s stuck!! 🙂 and I feel ashamed sometimes how many days I just breathe, I think a lot though, so maybe that’s a (+) on my ( – ) days eh? xPenx
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On the breathing days that you are thinking….I vote it is definitely a (+) if you are clearing out clutter or creating. Or resting for more ‘active’ days. 😉
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My cousin in Germany started our family tree because she wanted to and access to information was easier for her. No secrets in the closet but hardworking people and tiny women with 14 children. What humanity has been capable of.
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Amen. How’s come it’s always the wee little ladies that have such large broods?
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I don’t know but they were strong as all get out.
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WOW, WOW, WOW–
What a powerful thought! It’s incredible to think that some part of my DNA has lived most of human history!
Hugs from Ecuador,
Kathy
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Hhhmmmmm, not MOST of human history Kathy…. ALL!! 🙂
Hugs returned!
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Are we all related, Colleen, in a family tree that goes back to the very beginning?
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Yes! Which means we’re all married to our relatives. Hanging head very sadly because that thought grosses me out. 😉
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Pardon me while I slap my flat forehead!
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Oh. Well played Mark!
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I actually think about this all the time. I’ve always wished I could go back in time, every one hundred years or so, and spend a day just being there and soaking it all in. Can you imagine?
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YES YES YES!!!!!! I can imagine it MM!!!!! Isn’t it wonderful to think of plopping in to one of the ‘great great great’s” homes and watching them even for a couple of hours?????? Oh yes I do. 🙂 I’m glad it’s not just me!
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My brother-in-law has traced my husband’s family tree back a good ways but on my side we’re at a dead end, name changes and can’t find records. I tried. But, as you so beautifully wrote, I feel there love, from way way back.
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Thank you Paulette. Yes, the name changes have thrown us a few times. We’ve gone back many many generations in many branches. Others….also have come to a dead end. But the search is very enjoyable.
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Woah. Okay…. I work with historical/genealogy stuff all day long but Colleen I have to be honest… I’d never even thought of it like this. It sounds simple and I’m probably just daft but that truly is crazy to think of their being actual specific people who’ve lived through every time period that lead down to my existence. I’m so dumb but I’d never really thought of it like that. *lightbulb*
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🙂 I am thrilled by the thought of it. Sometimes I have thoughts that amaze even me. 😉 But truly am fascinated by it all. Think of all of the things that HAD to happen, or not happen, to every branch that led to each of us for us to exist. I am glad I had a part to play in a light bulb moment. 🙂
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I used to be scared of dying till my daughter was born. I’m a peace now knowing a part of me will live on once this body of mine quits working.
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I totally get that. 🙂
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Love this post. I’ve thought of this before and wish I had the stories of my ancestors, of their friends, families, work, emotions, what made them tick, what made them laugh. And, do some of the same things stir emotion within me? Do I make them proud? Do I fail them somehow? I could go and on…:-)
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Please do go on and on!!! This stuff amazes me. 🙂 And I want to know the very same things. During any dull moment I can so easily go to a place in history and imagine it with my relatives. Many an excruciating meeting or training has been survived in this manner. Shhhhhhhh 😉
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Many years ago I went to Orkney. There we went to see The Tomb of the Eagles, as found by a farmer on his land. The museum then was basically just his conservatory. It is all changed now, but then the farmer’s wife passed round artifacts.
Including a Stone Age skull. And a clay bowl made by a little left-handed Stone Age girl (you could tell by the pattern on it, and could guess that it was a girl because the boys would likely be out hunting.)
Anyway, she passed the skull round with the words, “This is your Great-great-great-great-great x 27 grandmother.” That, with the bowl made by real hands and real nail prints in it, brought the years together with a great Whoosh!
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OH.MY.GOSH!!!! I love that woman!!!!! That skull WAS someone’s….someone!!!! It walked around within someone’s skin! Lived a life. Ate meals. It gives me shivers. Good shivers. What a moment indeed.
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Profound. That is truly amazing when you think about it.
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Thank you. It still gets me when I think about it. Back in the day when the above ‘writing’ was in use I would have had ‘family’ walking about Ireland. Possibly unknowing of the skills being used above. But they were there. They existed. They may have seen this being used. Maybe they helped create it! Or not. But as long as I get to wonder about it, I will wonder things like that. 😉
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Amazing.
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🙂
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Colleen, I am just caught up in peeking into your head I sit and wait each for the next bit of wisdom, the next lightblub turning on, the next inspriation, and you never fail to amaze me. I once had a conversation about Stephen King (my favorite author) how I loved what he wrote, and how it scared the shit out of me. But the point I stressed was I never wanted his dreams or his thougths. I would love to have some of yours. Please take care, Bill
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Aw Bill, thank you! I share many of my thoughts. But not all of them. Though with this kind of encouragement….I might. 😉
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I have an original letter from one of my distant cousins that was written from the battlefield of the Civil War. Searching my family history, he wrote the letter 15 months prior to his death in the Battle of Gettysburg. His brother and sister both passed away approx. one year after him. (All three died very young).
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How sad. And how incredible that you have that letter. That letter was in your cousin’s hands. On the battlefield. Carried from battlefield to homefront. Read by how many other’s eyes? Held in how many other’s hands???? And preserved and passed forward from generation to generation to you. AMAZING. Absolutely amazing to me. Can you imagine his life? And what he must have been going through?
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Family trees are interesting; we are still working on ours. Celtic and Austrian, it has been a lot of work but with tech today I gather it can be more efficient.
But what I really wanted to focus on was: Oh my God you can write in Ogham!!! That is awesome!! That is all 🙂
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Well, I “did” write in Ogham. But I would really like to study it some and do more. I really enjoyed it. Kind of felt…..connected to old. I can’t imagine doing that in stone!!!
Good luck with your family tree. I’ve worked on ours quite a bit with my aunt and uncle. We have thoroughly enjoyed it. 🙂
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