When I laid out the plans for my Heritage Journal I knew intuitively that starting with myself would probably pose a challenge.

Truly, how does one properly reflect on their life in a concise way on a simple two page spread, especially when one considers their life only half lived?!

Right.

So, while starting with myself makes sense in the pedigree of it all, and I have started, I’ve made peace with the fact that my personal two-page spread will remain a work in progress, possibly for years to come, as my days and years and being continue to unfold around and within me.

All that being said, I have begun pulling it all together at the beginning of my origin story with the DNA carryover from the previous page (the Intro and Pedigree spread can be explored here) and a copy of a piece of a letter my maternal Grandma wrote to my Aunt (but never sent) shortly after my birth. This clue, left to me with Eve’s writing when she passed in 1997, has proven invaluable in my NPE experience.

I traced the most important sentences as a sort of ritual as well as to highlight them within the page.

It reads:

Michael was a disaster, but love can be and she was not looking for self destruction. Melissa is an unmixed blessing and Tim could not possibly be (or have been) better for all the weather.

I turned this into a flap that open up to reveal the truth of my NPE status and the beginning of a whole new chapter.

Under the flap are my mom (obviously), my biological father, and my true Dad, the man who raised me as his own and never looked back.

While this is a Heritage Journal, meant to help me focus on and connect with my lineage, I simply could not leave out my Dad entirely. If you know, you know.

I had the inspiration to overlay similarly styled photos of my mom and biological father and am pleased with the result. They are both younger in these photos than they were when they met and I was conceived but I see pieces of myself in each of these captures so it felt right to use them.

You then see baby me, poised to take on the world, and the Dad who’s looked after me as I’ve journeyed.

Another detail I knew I wanted to include was the inter generational connections to both music and the written word. Whether each of my known/more recent ancestors were actual writers and/or musicians or simply held a passionate adoration for reading and/or music, they are threads that have run through us all and deserve to be acknowledged for the profound joy they have given (and continue to give).

Simple washi tape does the trick here and will be carried across at least a few generational spreads in a variety of ways.

I’ve also included a few photos of the women in my family as well as a simple tag with my birth and marriage dates on one side and my signature on the other side.

And all of this is placed over an old map of Santa Fe, my hometown, as the backdrop.

There will be more, as inspiration moves me. How could I not include so many beautiful details of my life?! And I trust it’ll all continue to unfold gorgeously, both on the page and in life…

But for now, the rest is still unwritten.

Onward,

Melis