I was watching a Facebook reel about standing Face to Face with your ancestors. I think of all the privileges I have as a woman. I was looking up my Ancestry on Ancestry.com.
Things I can do that my female ancestor could do not:
I can vote
I can vaccinate my children by choice to save them from childhood diseases.
I can control the size of my family.
I obtained an advanced degree.(My great-grandmother had 4th-grade education)
I can speak out in public against issues and not be burned at the stake. (Yup, descendant of a witch).
I can speak the truth of generational trauma. I have healed that.
Suicide can be talked about, and sometimes prevented.
I am a United States citizen.
The Catholic Church isn't controlling my family.
Family is not always forever, there is no guilt or shame in that.
I can live my life the way I want to.
I was cooking pea soup today in the instant pot. My father's parents were immigrants from Canada. They used to depend on pea soup to feed their family 0f 8 for 3 days for dinner. It was not lost on me that I was experimenting with the instant pot to see if it was the quality I wanted to eat. Pea soup is a French Canadian dish I serve out of nostalgia. This simple dish that my paternal grandparents relied on to give their family a hot nutritious dish in the cold New England winters. I am grateful that we have more to give our children than our grandparents did.
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