Kayce Stevens Hughlett's Blog

Please join me in exploring your own bit of nostalgia. Here’s a quick prompt to get you started: Sunday’s are for…

If you were applying for the position of Future Ancestor, what are your qualifications? Previous experience? Areas of passion, simplicity, excellence you want to continue in the world?

Once upon a time, I wrote an anonymous blog… unfiltered, mildly edited thoughts and musings straight from my journal. It began/continued/assisted deep journeys of healing—my own and, at times, others along the way. Today I honor those beginnings.

Do you long to shake out your stuffiness? Give sound to sadness? Sing into silliness? Dance depression? Drum your desires? Paint new possibilities? Write dreams into poetry? Re-member the resonant story? Define your own sacred yes?

What happens when you forget who you are? What brings you back to center? On good days, I remember to write, to paint, to refocus.

After several conversations regarding ancestor work, I noticed a theme sprouting and an ancestral primer forming in my mind. This post is a tiny beginning. It is in no way comprehensive! The only way I know how to begin is to begin, so here are a few words ...

by Kayce Stevens Hughlett

excerpt from my full guest blog post for Rose Madrid Swetmen. Click here for full piece. 

These are the tactics of patriarchy—shame and fear, power over, toxic women supporting rule of the father, then claiming it can’t be discrimination because the supporter is female. Let’s not forget calling women crazy or saying they’re a witch for using intuition (like I received on the beach) or for practicing alternative healing methods—Reiki, artmaking as healing, understanding the cycles of the feminine moon. Remember those stern faces of my ancestors? I’m relatively certain they are the faces of angry women. Women tamped down, taught to be smaller, told to stand still and look pretty. We are told to stay in our place. That is the work of patriarchy. We are learning scientifically that that ‘work’ is genetically passed down.

Flowers everywhere. Bringing their inspiration into paint and pen.

Dream-tending. To give or to receive? Which lens will you look through?

A prayer for healing ...