Preservation and Tea on The Back of My Hand

There is a balance between remembering your ancestors and remembering your life, and these two activities enhance each other: honoring your ancestors, enriching your and your families’ lives, and preparing to pass along things meaningful to you for your children and loved ones to remember about you, their ancestor. And of course, your ancestors, from traditions to wisdom to genetics, are integrated into your life and the remembering of it and the passing along of it. And of course, your children and loved ones will remember those parts of you and your life, individual and collective (you within your family, community, world) that are most compelling or memorable to them, adding to generation after generation of rooted, yet fluid, traditions, stories, wisdom, and history of your family, community, species, and larger, depending upon your worldview.

Also for me, remembrance of stories told and lessons taught exists with equal power to the experience of how my mother made a cup of tea generally, and a specific instance(s) of the moist, warm feeling of the tea dripping off of soaked bread across the back of my hand, which felt different as a 5 year old and ten year, high schooler, adult, and now elder. I think of and additional integration of preserved remembrances of and for others and the “private” recollection, that may be shared in some ways because others may also remember cups of tea, tea-soaked toast, and spilled tea across the hand, but the experience of tea on my skin and filtered through my nervous system to my brain is unique.   

Felts Family Group

This group highlights the history of the Felts family.

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