Archive for April, 2009
Saturday, April 25th, 2009
Walkabout
I wrote once about the singular most important yearly ritual holiday that my family practices, Thanksgiving, and the meaning it has attached to it as a result of its excercise by my grandfather. In terms of rituals, my family truly has very few. I can count them on perhaps one hand. The annual ones, like Thanksgiving and Christmas are the most obvious and most frequently experienced. I had actually forgotten about the Walkabout blessing and the benediction of the new until very recently.
I was on the phone with Mom, and was sharing the news about how the move to the new house was going. She told me that Pop would be incredibly proud, and then she asked me if I was going to do the walk. The walk? What walk? Well, she explained, when you move into somewhere new, some place that you intend to make a true home, Pop would visit and bless it. This was accomplished by walking the perimeter of the place, slowly, in prayer. Prayer to protect, bless, raise a defense, cause to prosper, set aside. He had done this at the family home, and when my brother moved into his house, and my Aunt’s, and every time my mom moved.
It is hard enough for me to write this, and when she told me, I broke into tears. I had never seen him do this. I don’t think I had ever heard this described. The thing that got me was that I knew this ritual. I had performed it before. Having never seen or heard of it, I had yet performed it, in Baltimore, Austin, and of all places, Moonglow. I know how this is done. I know why it is so necessary. I called my brother about it, he had seen it done and walked with Pop when he did it, and described it to me. I could not speak. How do I know this rite? I still cannot talk about it out loud, nor have I been able to describe it to my partner.
Yesterday, I performed it at our new home. Circumnavigating the yard starting at the furthest corner, each step is a request and a seal. To raise a grand hedge of protection against harm or malice, establish a haven and a respite. To bind, remove and unfetter any dark force which may be arrayed against this home or its inhabitants. To bless it against disaster, natural and spiritual. Each step a trace, drawn in land, set aside, owned by a servant to a god of hosts. And underneath this packaged appeal, this high request for a blessing, a mark of gratitude and humility. “Look, Lord. Look at what you have given me.” That’s why it has to be done in the sunlight, you see.
Each room, room by room, set in and blessed, the walkabout ritual, stupid name for it, is a benediction for structure, land, and inhabitant. It would be assumptive of me to think that such a blessing would prevent fire, annihilation by hurricane or tornado, destruction or home invasion… but some portion of my heart stands in the middle of my conscience and insists in the loudest voice that “It does. Trust me, it does.” The part of my mind that tends to agree with the heart more often than not tells me, what the hell, perhaps it augments some statistical probability through the metaphysics of faith. The soul reminds me of Job, and that all benedictions are at the behest and grace of the author of the universe.
With the addition of a puppy siberian husky and my relationship remaining very strong with my partner, I have my own little family now, and I have my home. I am thankful for them, and I know that I am already blessed beyond what I could have imagined just a few years ago. I know Pop would be proud. I’m reminded of a tattered little plaque that hung up next to the air conditioner closet in the hallway of the home where we all lived. It was a quote from Joshua. But as for me and my house, we will serve the lord.
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
Even Now, No.
