Love this concept and exploration! Funnily, so timely for me. I just yesterday discovered the podcast called Eldest Daughter, which is about cycle-breaking while also recognizing the positive legacies we receive, and it resonated really deeply. I think I’m at the cusp of diving into my own ancestral exploration. For a few months I’ve been so curious about looking into my genealogy, but haven’t had the mental capacity yet.
I will have to look into that podcast. I, too, am an eldest daughter. At the start of healing, it was really hard to acknowledge any positive legacy because I was just learning to feel the hurt of the painful one. A few years in, seeing both sides is becoming more comfortable.
I really think generational trauma plays a big role in my family psychology. The book series Maus delves into the way that a Holocaust survivor and his sons interact and their dysfunctional relationship. I recognized many of the trauma coping skills in my family--not that their trauma was the same level or anything, but knowing about how they were survivors of the WWI, The Great Depression, immigration that involved leaving behind friends and family and never reconnecting again... and those are just the ancestors I've met in my life...makes me realize that yes, there is strength and resilience and every generation just wants better for their kids, even if they don't manage it...
If you haven’t read it, “What My Bones Know” by Stephanie Foo has a great section about the trauma of war and immigration and how it played out in her own and other families in her community. I hadn’t been thinking about the Great Depression, but I can also see the echoes of that in the way I’ve learned to think about money and financial security.
Love this concept and exploration! Funnily, so timely for me. I just yesterday discovered the podcast called Eldest Daughter, which is about cycle-breaking while also recognizing the positive legacies we receive, and it resonated really deeply. I think I’m at the cusp of diving into my own ancestral exploration. For a few months I’ve been so curious about looking into my genealogy, but haven’t had the mental capacity yet.
I will have to look into that podcast. I, too, am an eldest daughter. At the start of healing, it was really hard to acknowledge any positive legacy because I was just learning to feel the hurt of the painful one. A few years in, seeing both sides is becoming more comfortable.
I really think generational trauma plays a big role in my family psychology. The book series Maus delves into the way that a Holocaust survivor and his sons interact and their dysfunctional relationship. I recognized many of the trauma coping skills in my family--not that their trauma was the same level or anything, but knowing about how they were survivors of the WWI, The Great Depression, immigration that involved leaving behind friends and family and never reconnecting again... and those are just the ancestors I've met in my life...makes me realize that yes, there is strength and resilience and every generation just wants better for their kids, even if they don't manage it...
If you haven’t read it, “What My Bones Know” by Stephanie Foo has a great section about the trauma of war and immigration and how it played out in her own and other families in her community.
I hadn’t been thinking about the Great Depression, but I can also see the echoes of that in the way I’ve learned to think about money and financial security.