Reflections on a Family Genealogy Project
Did you know that the word “radical” comes from a term meaning “from the root or the radix” of a plant? Here’s a radical notion: the idea for your Oral History project needs the rich and fertile soil of your imagination along with sufficient time to develop. The seed of your project also requires the allurement of your imagination (or light) towards which it can orient. Just as a physical seed needs the proper nutrients like soil, water, light and time to develop, so, too, do your ideas. In Nature, elements work together relationally to help nurture the emerging root of a plant from the seed. Similarly, ideas around your oral history project can begin sprouting and sending shoots based on your connections and relationships with the events, people, places at the core of your project. Also, imagine all the people who might be enriched and touched by the legacy your project may help preserve and how rewarding it will feel to actually begin the project.
In my last post, I mentioned how my father’s interest in building the Family Tree triggered a deep response in me to want to learn more about his ancestry. That was the initial seed or allurement helping start what ultimately became a book, but initially started out as a genealogy project. As this seed idea of the Family Tree began to grow, the root of a deep connection with both of my parent’s lineages appeared. During Dad’s period of chemotherapy, each time I visited Kansas, I would pull out the large paper scroll mapping of the family tree and work with him on this project. My curiosity was engaged as well as a desire to be helpful during this time of healing. The Root can also be thought of as the foundation for your project. What is the radical (root) at the heart of your project? As you get closer to naming and imagining the core of this root, you may notice a warmth emerging in your heart, a feeling of spaciousness and upliftment in your upper body region, a sense of joy emerging in your vision. If you were to bring your hands together balancing on one foot, what word best summarizes the intention of the Oral History project that has been planted in the fertile soil of your imagination?