Untamed

I found out in the last couple of years that I have Gypsy heritage – Romany Gypsy.  I love the fact that I have this in my blood.

I have found this to be an inspiration in my poems as I love what the Gypsy culture stands for.  Their lifestyle, the way they live and the way they travel.

I have never felt settled in one place for very long.  I love to travel and I want to see so many places and do so many things.  I can see that all my interests now link back to that history and I am starting to embrace it.

I’ve always had a fascination with the old coloured wagons that they lived in, the colours they use for decorating them and the style they have.  I have started to read oracle cards and have bought a crystal ball.  I’m learning palmistry and have never understood why I felt drawn to all of this.

It was when I went to visit my family back in the UK with my youngest when he was 3 months old (7 years ago now) that I found out I have Gypsy heritage on both sides of my family.. It was my dear Grandad who has now passed that I found this out.  I never got to speak to him and find out a lot about my family’s history and my own parents don’t really know a lot.  My grandad’s grandmother lived in one of those old wagons and she read people’s palms and tea leaves.  It all clicked.

With a newborn, I didn’t really have the time to look into this more and when I came back to Australia, I wasn’t able to have much contact with him (family issues got in the way, again, long history of things).  I will always regret that I didn’t know this sooner and find out what I want to know about her life as I find it so interesting.  It’s part of me and who I am.

My mothers side of the family has also passed so that knowledge has stopped there too.

I always knew they had a slight ‘Gypsy’ look.  The dark curly hair and my nan loved her gold jewellery and collecting things.  My great grandmother always had brass on display that we were not allowed to touch, and I don’t have any of this.  It was given to other family members.

There was always a stigma attached to the Gypsies in the UK.  The Romany Gypsy’s were thought of the same as Irish travelers – scum and not trustworthy because people do not understand their culture.

So, I am now doing my own learning and have written some poems about the Gypsy culture.  I am reading books on the history of Romanies.  I have books on palmistry and am yet to practice with my crystal ball, but this is more finding time on my own and actually being a little bit scared of what it can do.  I will learn it and I intend to bring back that part of my history and incorporate it into my family life.  I am keen to travel and see parts of the world that I haven’t seen and I know I can make this happen with determination and manifesting.

My Gypsy heritage has always been there, I just didn’t know it. But now I do, I am embracing it.