Sometimes healing begins when we stop blaming the past and start tending our own garden.

This reflection comes from Jeremiah 31 — a reminder that we can honor our ancestors and still choose our own fruit.

Jeremiah 31:29–30 (NRSV)

“In those days they shall no longer say: ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ 

But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.”

Dear Ones,

I have tasted the grapes that you once ate.

Some were sweet, some were bitter.

Some were planted in pain, and some were watered with hope.

And for a long time, I didn’t know which flavors were yours

and which were mine.

I just kept chewing and chewing,

thinking the aftertaste was inheritance—

generational even.

But I’m learning.

I’m learning that what you carried was not meant to chain me.

It was meant to teach me.

I’m learning that your survival gave me strength,

and that your wounds don’t have to write my story.

So today, with love and sacred honesty, I say thank you.

Thank you for your labor.

Thank you for your laughter.

Thank you for your lessons.

And I also say I am sorry—

sorry for the times I blamed you

for what was really my own doing.

So I’m owning my part now.

I’m owning my choices.

I’m owning my healing.

I’m owning my fruit.

May the sweetness I grow honor all that you endured.

And may the bitterness end with me.

With love that stretches through generations,

Your child still becoming.

          TraVolve Wellness.