most sundays

ricebag worships with her family : any sunday so far pom 2005 : sunday means calm and warmth; ricebag watches and listens and tries not to think too much as her family sing and talk and as they worship; ricebag is still figuring out what IT ALL means and all who love her are letting her do it at her own pace; the real religion here is love ...

Most Sundays I wake up in Aunty D or Aunty Em's house. Invariably sharing a bed with one of my cousins in the little girls room. Usually by then some of the little 8 are already sitting knee up, milky milo in hand, crumbling biscuit in fist, listening to some sort of biblical story, being told by D.

Sunday is a day we spend together.

Early morning-time sometimes there's a guitar strumming - one of 'the boys' (teenagers of my extended fam) will be playing, practicisng. Sometimes it's D on the sofa, playing and singing. There is an air of peace I couldn't replicate without the specific elements of this family.

Eventually the troops get ironed and shirt-fitted and leather-belted and hair-combed with coconut-oil and our clothes smell just-off-the-line and wooden-pegged and its a scramble to get into cars ... and always, always there's one behind who is trying to scoff a last toast or plait the last braid or tie the last shoelace.

And when we get to church it's in time for my favourite part - the singing. It goes on for hours before the sermon and its the part which I understand best, left in my own communion.

I respect my family and their beliefs. I love that they don't pressure me into anything. And I know they see that while I BELIEVE, my faith is not theirs. Its another creature that lives with theirs. Its a creature that lives with buddhists; jains; muslims; hindus; christians; jews ... I believe in God. I believe He is not just the God of the followers of Christ but is also the God of all faiths.

I'm still figuring it out ... and they're giving me time, my people, the ones who count for ricebag in this lifetime.