“If you see the city as a body, what happens to the body is a trauma. What people tend to do when they have a very serious trauma is to turn their back on it. The people from Rotterdam did not look back in history. Don’t think about the past, they said, look at the future.” ~Wim Pijbes

The quote above comes from a NY Times article, From Rotterdam, Many Left for a New Life, published in 2018. I kept a copy of this article and specific quotes from it because Wim's words spoke so well to the trauma and loss that occurred both to people and families who chose to immigrate and those who were killed in World War II or survived. It also speaks to the trauma a place endured and the energy it still may carry if not healed. Places are also things that need healing.

Rotterdam was bombed in 1940 and almost nothing remains from that time as the city was rebuilt. Many cities across Europe had similar stories of emigration of people to ports of departure. Stories of displaced persons because of both World War I and World War II.

Yet the programming and propaganda was always " Don't think about the past, look at the future." Basically shut down. Be silent. Keep the secrets. Hide your trauma and pain (which often resulted in abuse of those the person loved). Rebuild. Have a family. Move forward. There were also few to no tools to help people process the enormity of what they had experienced. All of this undigested trauma passed down to their descendants. WE carry their unfinished business, trauma, grief, guilt, shame, anger, and so much more that creates negative patterns and situations in our lives.

We CAN identify and heal this.

When we look at ourselves today, the lives we lead, the beliefs, behaviors, and patterns we carry, this can be traced back to any number of family or collective trauma events. Not just war. Immigration. Migration. Financial collapses in the world. Change of political or religious leaders. Silencing of those who went against the narrative, which is also happening today because we did not learn in World War II and stand up and fight as a unified force then.

As I sit here contemplating this NY Times article again and writing, I think of my own connections to Rotterdam and many other places in Europe. My Czech family emigrated out of a few ports, Rotterdam being one of them. I have visited Hotel New York several times since 2016 and spent a couple nights there. Hotel New York was the building through which emigrants departed. Quite honestly, it feels like I have some major healing work to do around Rotterdam, family, immigration, and war trauma. I wonder what patterns and issues I will discover when I dive into this exploration.

As our world continues to shift since March 2020, it is important we all look back. That we explore our family patterns and question everything. Question why our family is the way they are. Question why we carry behaviors, beliefs, and patterns we do and make choices that sometimes are not for our highest good or best interest. Question why we allow what we do in our personal and professional lives and in our realities. Question when and why we submit to peer pressure of any kind. Question what we are here to be, do, learn, and ask for support in this.

We can all heal the past as we heal ourselves. We can stop the insanity that is happening on the planet, one by one, layer by layer.

If you would like help with this, I offer many military research classes, classes on identifying and healing family patterns, and chakra balancing and energy healing sessions. You can learn more about me, my work, my connection to Europe, the World Wars, and my services at the Ancestral Souls Wisdom School. I invite you to journey with me and heal.

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