'Heredity' - Thomas Hardy

What those who espouse such beliefs fail to recognize is that past trauma is not simply left behind. Whether trauma is passed along to subsequent generations through the child-rearing practices of those who directly experienced it, or whether trauma actually causes changes in DNA, as some studies suggest, trauma is transgenerational and cannot simp

my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished.16

We are the product of several generations of ungrieved wounds. Focused on survival, our ancestors had little choice but to retaliate or repress the wrongs that had been done to them, so that they could persevere. But with so few elders in our midst who teach about the importance of grieving, or who create culture and ritual around honouring grief,

you come from a long, unbroken line of ancestors who survived unimaginable adversity, difficulty, and struggle. It’s their genes and their blood that run through your body right now. Without them, you wouldn’t be here.