Dear community,
It can be hard to write about ancestral reconnection when the thread feels frayed, or even missing. As the daughter of Korean immigrants, I don’t know what my ancestors were like before they were culturally colonized by Confucianism. I don’t know what rituals they used to speak to their ancestors or the land. I wonder how much was lost when my ancestors were brutally colonized by Japan. I’ve inherited gaps: blank spaces left by war, by colonization, by migration, by the pressure to assimilate as a young girl of color growing up in the United States.
And yet—something in me still longs to connect.
In the Liberatory Reconnection Framework, the realm of Spirit & Ancestors reminds us not of what we should know, but of what we are allowed to wonder about. Not everyone’s lineages were centered in land stewardship or ecological ritual. Not every tradition maps onto contemporary ideas of “sacred” or “reciprocal.” Some of us come from lineages marked by hierarchy, violence, or survival. And still, we are allowed to ask: what did connection look like before disconnection became the norm?
What practices helped our people endure? What might we reclaim—not to romanticize, but to reweave?
Disconnection from spirit and ancestors is not a personal failing. It is the result of systems—colonization, capitalism, and supremacy—that severed our ties and told us to be ashamed of what came before. When we feel uncertainty or grief around our ancestors, that too is part of the work. Reconnection isn’t about perfect clarity. It’s about honest curiosity.
Reconnection in this realm might mean:
- Sitting with the grief of not knowing
- Learning about your family’s migration or spiritual history with openness
- Creating small rituals that feel grounding—even if you’re inventing them
- Seeking out threads of tradition that feel like home in your body
To reconnect with our ancestors is not always to recover facts. Sometimes it is to build relationship with the unknown. To say: I’m here, and I’m listening.
This week, I invite you to reflect:
- What questions about your lineage feel alive for you right now?
- Where do you feel the pull of something greater than yourself?
- What would it mean to be in relationship with what you cannot name?
Reconnection here is not always celebratory. But it is sacred. It is a choice to return, to listen, to root—however incompletely.
In solidarity and with care,
