After reading the two chapters assigned to us, I'm left with several thought and convictions. The first thought that comes to mind is when Rani Jha shares in her introduction that ". . . the most urgent justice work I do can't continue if I'm not - if we're not - paying more attention to the wisdom of our ancestors" (3). Any type of social justice work can be draining, it can be tempting to want to give in and give up. Yet when I reflect on the resistance stories from my cultural and spiritual ancestors, I recognize that while they weren't able live long enough to see the "kingdom of God" (similar to Moses's experience with the Israelites), they did manage to move the needle a little more towards a more just world. Hearing the various stories within my family lineage, encourages me to not lose hope in the long battle towards liberation for all.

I am also left wondering how to navigate the stories of those ancestors who have also caused harm; the "atrocious ancestors". I recognized even within my current living elders, there has been abuse in the family line. Many of my family members (including me) have felt the need to push these certain family members out of the greater family story. Yet of course, when I do that, I also sense that I am not leaving space for grace and transformation to unfold. I would love to explore this topic more as I sense that many of these ancestral stories can be unsettling and therefore we avoid them. Nonetheless, they are a part of reality and turning a blind side to it doesn't necessarily "cure" us either.

• “When we examine history people from the past seems to be mythic, they turn into imperfect people and some people don’t want us to realize that all of history, good and bad was created by imperfect people because that means  imperfect people like us can also shape history, and that’s dangerous to those who would silence us.” - Page 5

The quote above caught my attention right away because I didn’t see that connection before with telling history. The connection between sharing history, but not sharing the imperfect parts of the entire story because knowing all parts of the story may just empower us now to consider taking actions to change the narrative we are on. As I continue to educate myself on history pertaining to U.S.A., European colonization of the Americas, and more recently Native American history. I’ve learned how many stories are purposefully omitted to ensure a clean and agreed upon collective memory of our history in the U.S.A. The notion that “Natives lost and White settlers won so we shouldn’t feel guilty because it was a fair right” is a collective narrative I grew up hearing. Newsflash, it wasn’t a fair fight nor was it morally correct to claim it was. Also the history around African enslavement and how “Lincoln freed the slaves”, but we negate to highlight how Jim Crow laws basically reset slavery conditions with new “laws” that justified the continued forced labor of African-Americans in the South.

I definitely believe learning our global history and being able to articulate our thoughts around it is important as we continue to navigate the current system we are living in that came to be because of colonization.

Does anyone else watch Who Do You Think You Are or Finding Your Roots? Both of those shows help celebrities look at their family trees to find answers about their ancestors. I love watching those shows. I homeschooled my girls and I often thought that a great way for them to learn about history would be to look back into our family tree and talk about what our ancestors were doing during important points in history. I never had enough discipline to do the research though. (haha) I will admit that part of me was worried that I would find that we had an embarrassing past. What if someone had owned slaves or had been a murderer or something?

In chapter 11, Ms. Jha writes about breaking cycles and passing down a good legacy to the next generation. I think about that a lot. I was raised by an abusive mother who was raised by an abusive mother. Thankfully, I've had access to counseling, so while my kids did endure some abuse (before therapy), it was not as much as I did, and my hope is that the cycle is completely broken with them. My hope is that we will have open and honest discussions about the history of my family with my grandkids, so they learn from our mistakes as well as our victories.