As a child, it didn’t matter to me where I came from. Where my genetics originated or who my ancestors were didn’t intrigue me. When I became an adult, my genealogy fascinated me. Some time ago, my mother created a family tree of my father’s family. I always knew that side of my family was big, but I didn’t realize the number of relatives I had.
My father was one of six boys born to Austin Waldo Evans and Yvonne Bertrand. My grandmother, Yvonne, was the youngest of twelve siblings. Each of her siblings had no less than three children. And the children old enough to have children had no less than three of their own. You can imagine how many of us that is, but I’ve done the math.
From my father, I have 105 family members, give or take newborns and the deceased; not to mention the few that we have adopted or taken in. That’s quite a clan. From my father’s family tree, I learned some of my genealogy. I am Creole; a mix of French, Black, and Native American; Dominican; possibly Black and Native American; and some Spanish. I surmised long ago that I come from a long line of mixed race ancestry.
When my mother finished mapping my father’s lineage, she partnered up with my uncle to map out her lineage. From their unique childhood memories and a number of family stories, they put together a nice size family tree. They eventually did some research using Ancestry.com to fill in some blanks. On my mother’s side of the family, there is Creole, full blood Native American, and some Irish.
What does this have to do with adopting a holistic lifestyle? For a long time, I experienced very detailed dreams, phantom taps on my shoulder, shivers, and strong senses of awareness. I also experience strong senses of emotion. The strong senses of awareness resembled anxiety, even panic attacks. At the time, I was suffering from severe panic attacks and anxiety as PMS symptoms. That’s what I thought I was experiencing. Recently, I had gone through a time of introspection and self-exploration. Since then, I’ve come to realize that what I was going through was intuitive experiences.
Along with a strong intuitive sense, I also can sense nature. I can smell rain and feel actual water when there’s humidity. I can even feel a difference between summer heat and the heat of the cooler months. I remembered a time when my maternal grandmother, Amelia, mentioned she’d been told she was born inside her amniotic sac or in a caul. This is a rare occurrence and is said to mean that a newborn will possess supernatural abilities or has been born into greatness. Grandma Amelia referred to it as “being born with a vail”. She also told stories of having dreams of my deceased grandfather, Ishmeal, and sensing his presence after waking up.
I knew, from my grandmother’s stories and my strong bloodline, that I inherited intuitive abilities, as well as, a strong spiritual connection to nature. I, possibly, inherited these abilities from a distant grandparent or an ancestor. I wanted to study intuition and strengthen my abilities so I bought a book called “Intuition for Beginners”, by Diane Brandon. I read and studied; did the exercises and started keeping a journal to document my experiences. My first time reading this book, I learned that honing your intuition can help enhance all aspects of your life. I’m still studying and honing my abilities. My experience with my intuition has introduced me to the possibilites of living a natural, authentic lifestyle.
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