Grandmother

There are very few people who listen to their grandmothers anymore. I listened to her and she told me all this.

Legend has it that a thing of beauty is not to be seen but felt when the words come from the mouth of wisdom into the ears of folly.
It is then that folly rises up and sees the sun-knows when she rises and when she sets or why she scorches the earth at 1:00pm.
This legend also has it that a blessing-is best given at the time of despair, or death-for then the ancestral spirits rise up to see it come to pass.
Not all spirits are good-but the one spirit that lives on forever is the one that is borne in NAME.
So, I was born as the sun scorched the earth-and granted "Achieng" that I may be as bright as the shining sun and that I may engage in any activity with all my might as the intensity of the scorching sun.
Then came the name-the name that now all people had to have.
It would have been fine by me if I bore ACHIENG' OKEYO-the latter a gift from my Father. He was born during the harvest season.
She looked at me and smiled and my Father said "ISDORA"
"EEH"
That was her blessing. She is 75 I am barely a third of that but our hearts speak as one.
It is the love-the hope and the concern we share.
I sought her wisdom and left there feeling smarter than I ever did reading ten books!
They say the way of the wise is in their words-their eyes and in their spirit. My people see this daily, yet I don't. I am hunched within the best buildings, the best technology-but in those few days, what she said is like a voice that calls out to me.
My people say "ogwedhi" meaning "you are blessed."
They knew then that she was in me-that she had given me insights into the same spirit-the warrior spirit she has as a woman.
It is love-life, hope and it is the dance during harvest time that reminds me she is within me. All I have to do is call out to her....I have her blessings.

Author's Note

Looking back at your cultural practices and beliefs, do your elders bestow blessings on children named after them too?