Grocery II

The mat is earth made soft. It roots you before you even stand. To be born on a mat is to be introduced to the ground, to the goddess, to gogo. The same mat used for birth is often the same type used for prayer, negotiation, healing, and burial. It represents the cyclical nature of life, a continuous returning. We begin and end on the mat. Some believe the pattern of the mat, the way it was woven, and the reeds used hold messages about the child’s spirit. It is the first text written for your soul. When you sit on a mat to pray, you return to the place of your beginning. When you lie on a mat to rest, you return to the rhythm of the womb. When you weep on a mat, it absorbs what your grandmother wept before you. To know the mat you were born on is to know a part of your story that cannot be written in ink. It is to remember that before you had words, you had a place and that place held you spiritually, wholly, unconditionally. So honour the mat. Lay it down with reverence. Sit on it with presence. Pray on it with awareness. For it is not just a surface. It is a sacred witness to your becoming. - Celuxolo Stewart aka Gogo Simenjalo

Created By

Fumani Maluleke