11d • General discussion
What We Hand Down (seemed like a good place to start)
We don’t just hand down names,
or eye color,
or the way our hands curl when we’re tired.
We hand down pauses.
The way we go quiet when certain subjects come up.
The words we never learned how to say
but taught anyway through silence.
We hand down fear dressed up as caution,
anger disguised as humor,
beliefs we inherited so young
they feel like instinct.
Somewhere between love and frustration,
between faith and doubt,
between politics and the dinner table,
between grief and the life that keeps moving—
we decide what stays
and what keeps repeating.
Some of it we mean to pass along—
how to show up,
how to stay,
how to love without keeping score.
Some of it slips through without asking—
the tension in our shoulders,
the weight behind our laughter,
the questions we learned to swallow.
Our children don’t just watch what we do.
They feel what we carry.
And every day, whether we notice or not,
we’re choosing—
to keep passing it on,
or to set something down
before it reaches their hands.
This is the first of my writings to be read by someone besides myself. Let me know what you think and if this resonated with you in any way. Thanks for reading!
2
0 comments
What We Hand Down (seemed like a good place to start)
powered by
skool.com/what-we-hand-down-4353
Poetry on fatherhood, grief, faith, and the times we’re living in. Come read, reflect, and feel less alone.
Suggested communities
Powered by