Our You Version Plans are based on our weekly lectionary reflections called Word from Below.

My late grandmother told my brother and me a story every time we were together. A story we never grew bored of. Nostalgically, she narrated how she and our mum overcame a traditional belief that perpetuated death in the community. According to the dominant traditional belief in the days we were born, twins were considered an evil omen to the family and community. Therefore, one of the twins was to be disposed of like garbage, left in the bushes to be consumed by wild animals, such as hyenas. My brother and I are fraternal twins. 

I was born on an island surrounded by the sea. I am possessed by what feels like an ancestral connection to salty bodies of water, to seas, to oceans. When I am lucky enough to commune with the ocean, I feel held – at home – embraced by something that I cannot see or understand but nonetheless feel. It is like a returI was born on an island surrounded by the sea. I am possessed by what feels like an ancestral connection to salty bodies of water – to seas, to oceans. When I am lucky enough to commune with the ocean, I feel held; at home, embraced by something that I cannot see or understand. It is like a return, a memory, a blessing, a minor rebirth when I hold my breath, slip under water and resurface, air expanding in my lungs. I am praying, I am breathing, my breath entangled with all breath that ever was and will be.