Day 21
Writing Practice
One of Theo and I’s first dates, a visit to ancestral grounds. Many moons ago (1995) on a late Saturday afternoon Theo came and met me, to walk, leap, tumble onto rocks in search of primordial faces.
Back then, I am embarrassed to say, I was unaware the depth of this journey, our first intentional date (almost thirty years ago) amongst the ancestral spirits. I was oblivious to the transcendent nature of ancestors sharing their illustrious art seared into earth’s natural canvases.
Why wasn’t I more animated by this consecrated adventure? I believe I was more taken by the fact I was with this beautiful tender quiet man and my thoughts all balled up in whether he was attracted to me or not. Who had mind to think about the ceremonial art of sacred ancestors? I love that Theo wanted to take me there. If I wasn’t so wrapped in my own desire for this man and tangled in my twenty-four year old shy, uncertain self, would I have bowed down in reverie to this miracle of longevity, these primordial faces etched in stone as i do now every time we visit?
It is in the years gone by while living so close to the earth here in Grenada, living with a man who also carries the name Tegua as one of his home names (meaning rich nutritious soil), a man intimate with soil and moon and tides; a man who thought a trip to visit sacred land holding the works of Carib and Arawak people would be a perfect first date. It would take a few years after this to truly breathe in spirit and understand more fully and drastically what’s been lost when modernity took over our minds and souls.