My Family Culture

Imagine the following:

A major catastrophe has almost completely devastated the infrastructure of your country. The emergency government has decided that the surviving citizens will be best served if they are evacuated to other countries willing to take refugees. You and your immediate family are among the survivors of this catastrophic event. However, you have absolutely no input into the final destination or in any other evacuation details. You are told that your host country’s culture is completely different from your own, and that you might have to stay there permanently. You are further told that, in addition to one change of clothes, you can only take 3 small items with you. You decide to take three items that you hold dear and that represent your family culture...


The three items that I would choose to take with me to represent my family culture would be the wooden spoon and fork set, a djembe, and chakra stones.

The wooden spoon and fork is a traditional item in most African-American homes or kitchens

 and represents having good health and a prosperous family. The set can, also, be interpreted as family strength since the time the family is actually gathered together is at meal time. The oversizing is to emphasize that strength for all that visit the home to see. I grew up with this exact set in the kitchen of my childhood home!

A djembe or jembe, is a musical instrument that is a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands, originally from West Africa. The drums has always been the "keeper of the beat". Your heart is like a drum that keeps the beat of your spirit. The sound of the drum is used to communicate, both physically (through playing) and spiritually (when you allow the beat to engulf your soul). 

                                                     



The last item that I would bring with me on my journey would be chakra stones. My family and I are deeply into energy and strengthening the mind, body, and spirit. Chakra stones are used to cleanse and strengthen certain energy centers found within the body and are an important part of spiritual and mental growth. 
                             

 In arriving into this foreign land, if I were told that I could only keep one personal item and have to give up the other two items I brought with me, I would feel devastated, but would keep the chakra stones. All three items make up a significant part of my identity. Although, I would have a hard time parting with any of these 3 items, I would know that I carry the special memories of  them all and in these memories I would have them with me always.