My ancestry is something that has always interested me, but not profoundly untill a couple of days ago. I read a comment my aunt Kathy Marsden posted to my first blog entry that really struck a chord. She wrote, "...you have a little of your grandpa Barnes in you! He loved to write about anything and everything." For some reason, at that moment, I was struck with joyful adoration for someone have I never met. Unfortunatly, he passed before I was born. I don't even have a picture of him in my head, but I felt a connection to him that was very real.
Then I thought, "Why have I never had this feeling before?" I am 27 years old and have studied my family history, particularly on my father's side, through pictures, stories, and family tree. However, I have never really thought about them actually being part of me or that I am a part of them. Not really. To think that I could have some of the same personality traits and idiosyncrasies. We all say things like, "You have your mother's eyes," but to have something personal in common with a stranger from your past is kind of surreal. It is a neat thing to thing about how you are the incredible sum of so many "parts." For the good or the bad, you have someone to thank for giving you life.
For me, writing is an escape, a stress reliever, and fun. I have loved to write about my thoughts and feelings on random subjects for as long as can remember. I feel like putting my thoughts and emotions into print is a very personal experience and certainly something that is all mine. I can share what I want to share and keep private what I want to keep private. I have never known anyone in family, or even any friends, that like to write the way I do and more importantly, share what they write. To find out I have that one little thing in common with my great-grandfather is a special thing to me.
I wonder how many things I have in common with other members of family that have gone on before me. I wish I would have had the opportunity to meet so many of them. I hope that my grandparents are around long enough provide healthy memories of them to my children. Family is the most important thing in my life. Family will be around long after every other relationship fades. I hope I can impress upon my babies the importance of their family and family history. As the old saying saying goes, "You have to know where you've been to know where you are going."
Nice! Courtney also shares the "writing trait" LOL! It is fasinating to look at my family and see what I see. With the girls...I see so much of thier grandparents in them. Courtney with the writing and being soooooo like her father even though she had not grown up with him as a constant in her life! Kayla has a lot of both her grandmothers with gardening. The music...I think that came from Grandpa Barnes family. We should really encourage your Grandma to record her memories of them. Any stories really from our elders! It is true...that old saying! How can we know our potential, if we don't know our past.
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