Welcoming July

Dear Diary,

July is beginning somewhat dark and ominous with thunderstorms predicted most of the day but much cooler than yesterday which is a blessing.

Brother Cadfael's  quote this month seems especially appropriate:

Where the seed lights, the herb grows.  And there is nothing like hard usage and drought to drive roots deep.

As I read more and more about my ancestor's lives and hardships it makes me marvel at  the grit and determination they had to have had to stick it out in the new and hostile world they found themselves in.  They could have chucked it all and gone back, some did.  But those who stayed drove their roots deep into the New England soil.

I have a bit of that in me as well.  I think there are subtle and less tangible things that we inherit from our ancestors beyond hair and eye color.  Science is beginning to back this up.  So, genealogical study is more than merely finding out the names and dates of our ancestors; it allows us to hold up a mirror and see into our own being more clearly.