It Didn’t Start With You
It didn’t start with you,
these chains around your throat,
the shame immersed in your blood,
threads of pain spun long before your birth.
It didn’t start with you,
the shadows of choices you didn’t make,
by hands you’ve never held,
by hearts you’ve never known,
yet their echo skims the surface of your skin.
It didn’t start with you,
this weighted blanket hanging over you,
these burdens that still wreak in your bones,
a legacy of pain shackled around your breathing.
It didn’t start with you,
the whispered fears and chronic sorrow,
the stories untold yet etched into DNA,
the constant feeling of missing the mark,
this whakapapa of wounds
It didn’t start with you,
these patterns of silent anger and despair,
these beliefs that create bondage,
the sickness that lingers like a ghost in the bloodline.
It didn’t start with you,
the disapproval etched into a father’s forehead,
the sorrow tucked into a grandmother’s eyes,
the rejection and resentment in your soul passed down like a family heirloom.
It didn’t start with you,
this aching cracking your ribs,
a song sung under the roof of a broken home,
your marrow soaking in secrets
It didn’t start with you,
the weight of crimes gone unpunished,
interwoven into the sinews of your being,
broken seals and soiled sheets,
a struggle carved in sacred lines.
It didn’t start with you,
these patterns of survival,
the clenched fists, the quiet tears,
the smile covering your fear,
the stories told only after dark.
It didn’t start with you,
weeds watered by the unchecked choices of fathers of fathers,
the suffocating silence of mothers of mothers,
the oppressive agenda of the power grabbers and elite.
It didn’t start with you,
but the Creator, slow to anger and rich in love,
grieves over the sin, the shame, the sadness,
and reaches across time like hands stretching for redemption,
And she says,
the before days still ripple through you,
and may linger beyond you,
but a reclamation can start today within you,
there is a sacred invitation,
there is The Way….to be continued.
He Karakia mō te Herekore o Ngā Uri
E te Atua kaha rawa,
Ko koe te pūtake o te ora.
Wetekina ngā here o ngā rā o mua,
kia kore ai te mamae e mau tonu ki a mātou.
Whakamāramatia ō mātou ngākau,
kia tū kaha mō ā mātou uri.
Ko te aroha me te tika hei ara mō rātou,
kia whai māramatanga, kia whai mana.
Ko te oranga mō ngā whakatupuranga kei roto i a koe,
Whakapaingia mātou, ārahina mātou ki te ao hou.
Amine.
(Inspired by Numbers 14:18, intergenerational trauma, epigenetics, the genogram, footholds/strongholds and whakapapa)
