The Gift

I have never attempted to blog before and I find it all a bit intimidating.  In fact I’m not even sure I’m blogging in the correct area.  I just cruised through the icons on the top of the blog page and read show/hide the kitchen sink.  I’m not sure what that means but it’s something I do at home all the time.  Beats washing the dishes.

Once I had a friend that went to prison (he was innocent of course) and after he arrived at his final destination he called me.  The connection wasn’t very clear and I thought he said he had gone through the kitchen.  I thought prison can’t be too bad - the first thing they do is take you to the kitchen to get something to eat.  Sometime later I realized he had said he’d gone through classification.  Anyway that kitchen icon made me think of my innocent friend.  They’re all innocent I’ve heard and they all seem to find God while they’re there and then forget him as soon as that prison gate opens and they get released.  That, of course, isn’t true for everyone.  Its just an observation.

I got a little sidetracked by the kitchen thing.  What I really want to write about is my latest edition to my Bayou Bunnies collection. It is titled  ”Mama JoLee and Joseph-The Gift” and will be listed in the “Life on the Bayou “section of Bayoubunnies.etsy.com.  I have also written a short story about Mama JoLee, her husband, Moses, their son Joseph, and even their cat, Scruffy. I thought I might add an excerpt from story here.

Mama JoLee

     At the edge of a moss draped cypress swamp a gray house with shutters, built from the wood of cypress tress and standing on brick pillows, sits in a small clearing.  The clearing is surrounded by trees.  Spanish moss hangs from the branches and dance gracefully in the gentle breeze.  The swamp is a primitive place full of strange and wonderful creatures.  Vegetation of all types grow there.  controlled only by the seasons, the weather, and Mother Nature each day is different.  Each day is unique.

     During the spring and summer flowers adorn the front of the house.  Pots of herbs hang from the rafters on the porch.  A porch swing shares space with the pots of herbs and two rocking chairs set close together.  The slats of the porch beneath the chairs are rubbed shiny from years of rocking. Croaking frogs and the sounds of countless insects sing their nightly lullaby.  These are the sights and sounds of home.

     This house is the home of Mama JoLee and her family.  Mama JoLee is a healer, a root woman.  Roots, herbs, and the things of nature are what she used to make her medicines, her poultices, and other healing applications.  And this swamp and the land around it are rich with what she needs.  Her mother was a root woman, as was her mother, and her mother before her as far back as the beginning of time.  The ancient ancestral knowledge of healing flows through her veins as naturally as the morning dew sits on the blades of grass.  It defines her.  It is who she is.

     People living in and around the great cypress swamp come to her when they need doctoring and any time day or night she is there for them.  Word of her abilities have spread to the people living in City on the Bayou.  When the city doctor says there is no hope, they send for her and she always goes.  Entering through the back door, Mama JoLee puts aside the cold judgmental attitudes of some of these people.  She knows that they do not see her as an equal.  That at a different time and under different circumstances, she would not be invited into their homes and especially not the inner sanctum of their bedrooms.  But those ancient deities of her great grandmother’s homeland have blessed her with the ability see past the blackness in the hearts and minds of these unfortunate souls.  She only sees their need and feels their pain. and, sadly as we know, people are always kinder when their need is greatest.  She is their last hope.  Mama JoLee knows in her loving and forgiving heart that this is the way of the world.

     There are those that question, with suspicion, how Mama JoLee receives her healing power.  Mama JoLee says she is only a woman living a simple life.  She will say no more.  To openly practice the religion of her people brought to this new world across a vast ocean many, many years before would bring harsh and cruel repercussions.  In 1871 this worship of the deities of nature and the spiritual world is illegal and the punishment severe.  People always fear that which they do not understand.  Generations later the descendants of these same people will find fascination with this religion that their forefathers feared and hated.  Books will be written and movies made.  Many extreme exaggerations of the truth will be told. Misunderstanding perpetuated, changed, and grew through the years.

     Mama JoLee had been taught about Jesus and his loving Father when she lived on the plantation.  She embraced these teachings and blended them with those things she had been taught by her mother.  For her it was a natural thing to do.  She felt her religious life was in complete balance with the spiritual universe.

     Not all the people and children living in City on the Bayou are cold and indifferent.  Most will call out a greeting when they see her on the streets; and the children will run to embrace her. The love of a child is a wondrous thing. They have that magical ability to look into your eyes and see your soul; and if your soul is good and pure, they will love you. What on earth can be greater than that?

     The loves of Mama JoLee’s life are her husband, Moses, and her son, Joseph.  All three live the lives of freed slaves.  Mama JoLee received her freedom as a young woman through a trade made with the Master.  As his beloved wife lay dying during childbirth and the city doctor said there was nothing more that could be done, Mama JoLee’s mother promised to save the life of both the mother and child in exchange for her daughter JoLee’s freedom.  After a healthy baby was placed in his arms and his wife’s eventual recovery, the Master kept his promise and granted JoLee’s freedom.

     Moses, however, gained his freedom in an entirely different and strange way.  Moses was big and strong and a hard worker.  He was quiet and rarely spoke around the Master or the overseer.  Master began to hear rumors that Moses could conjure and might even be a Hoodoo Priest.  The master had no proof of that and never saw anything but a hard worker.  But being a superstitious man, his imagination began to get the better of him and he began to fear Moses.  When his chickens began to die (through no fault of Moses), he thought for sure that Moses had done it.  He could  sell him, he thought, or he could even kill him. Being a God fearing man, killing him, after much thought, was not an option.  What if his ghost came back to haunt him and his family.  He had heard of that happening.  And if he sold him, he could conjure up something terrible. After all his chickens were already dying.  What, what to do?  If he couldn’t sell him and he couldn’t kill him and not wanting to anger him, there seemed only one way to be rid of him.  he would give Moses his freedom and hopefully he’d go far, far away.  So Moses, without warning and without explanation, suddenly found himself one morning on the road outside of the Master’s plantation with his few possessions and a letter of freedom. He had no plan and no where to go.

     All day he walked down that hot, dusty road.  The sun overhead was scorching but he didn’t notice.  he was used to working all day in the fields. He might have enjoyed that day if he only knew where he was going and what he was going to do.  His stomach began to rumble and he realized that he hadn’t eaten since early morning.  Despair began to set in.  He had no food, no money, and no water.  He knew he would not be welcomed if he walked up to some farmhouse and ask for help nor would it be safe.

     Off in the distance he saw someone coming down the road toward him. Fear almost froze him in his tracks.  He took a deep breath, pulled himself up to his full height, and told himself he was as good as any man that walked down that road.  With that (and shaking just slightly)he began to walk at a fair clip toward the advancing figure.

     As the figure got closer, ……