I Am From…
I am from…
I am from a pomegranate people
I am from a people with a tough leathery exterior
You never really know how to peel ‘em and get inside
Sometimes you can make a careful incision at the top and slowly peel away bit by leathery bit
Sometimes you just slice right down the center,
Stories bleeding out, deep crimson sadness
And once the flow stops, lodged tightly together and held by generations of mycelium are
Shining gems glowing when the light hits just right
I come from glowing seeds
Juicy and full and plump
And full of wonder and abundance
As a part of my training to be a healing-centered coach with Blooming Willow Coaching, we really dug deep into our own healing and journey. That is, after all, what it is all about… doing my own work so I can sit with others with more presence and intention as they do their work (whatever that looks like).
A part of the healing-centered coaching journey was looking deeper at who we are now and where we have come from. In one exercise we were asked to write “I Am From…” poems and to dig deep. I was already holding that image of a pomegranate in my mind and it just stuck with me as I considered the people I come from (at least one version of the people I come from).
When I wrote this I was holding the complexity of intergenerational trauma and its impact on my family, how we related to each other, my body and where I hold all of this, and what I have had to shed to be myself in this world.
I was holding the fact that my ancestors of blood and bone fled into mountains and joined armies to escape imminent death just two generations ago.
I was holding the fact that the only way my grandparents and great-grandparents knew to survive in a place that actively oppressed and stigmatized them was to harden and push as hard as they could to do what they thought was best for their children at the time.
The best. At the time.
And to me that is a huge part of breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma...doing the best we can in the moment and knowing that our descendants will surpass our wildest dreams.
For me breaking those cycles has looked like softening. Softening my gaze and softening my approach and softening my reactions and creating a soft love for self.
It is hard work every day.
I’m here for it.
