Every woman carries an inheritance. Some of it was chosen for her. Some of it she chose herself. This issue is about the difference — and about the sacred, discerning work of deciding what we honor and what we lovingly release.

You will read from families who kept their language, and from those who had to invent one. You will read from women who inherited land, and from women who inherited absence and made something beautiful out of it.

“Heritage is not only what we were given. It is what we chose to keep, what we chose to compost, and what we quietly refused to pass on.”

Heritage, at its most honest, is not what we received. It is what we chose to be worthy of receiving — and worthy of passing forward.