The Reader Travels

One of my dearest friends shared her copy of Alice Walker’s The Temple of My Familiar with me a few years ago, knowing how I was consumed with thoughts of trees and memories of past lives.

Walker’s character Lissie takes us on a journey through history and pre-history. Her memory is long, for “Lissie means ‘the one who remembers everything.’” And she does.

Lissie remembers Africa, and many African countries have a history of tree cults, where trees are thought to bear some life-giving spirit or divinity. Lissie talks of “the chopping down of our hair,” as if our hair were mighty trees. She calls to me.

More recently, my friend shared another connecting link through the music of Jill Scott. The song, “Do You Remember,” on Who is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1, also ties in this concept of remembering past lives. J-I-L-L remembers Africa, too, building “sand castles in the Serengeti.”

I don’t remember past lives, but I feel connected to all who have come before me and those who will come after, like the roots of trees are connected to the earth, their branches to the sky.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 10:47 pm and is filed under Africa, meanderings, trees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.