13 Bowls and their stories

The world is not made of guilt rather of feasting.

This is the message of my ansisters. I think.

And through the great and hollow bits of history like the blessings of being together and the droughts of being apart (christenings, Christmases, weddings, funerals, the groot trek, going on commando, concentration camps, depression, war, breakfasts, lunches and dinners with teas and coffees in between) our mothers prepared food with what they had and held hands and mouths and bodies and minds and the times together.

The food became the containers of what they gave.

Consuming became the ritual.

And bits of their ways of doing and surviving and celebrating are passed down to us.

So the stuff we inherit are not dreams. They are stories and recipes of how to go on.

Posted 30 June 2005, www.face.org.za, author: Roela Hattingh.