Learning Single Origins.

Grandma shows energy is always just for right now.
Grandma spends most days fixing the yard, consoling, praying, planning.
Mending broken items, preparing for rain.

Every morning she holds a coffee ceremony. She roasts and I ground the coffee beans. She pours round after round and I drink each cup thirstily.

She shows me why the women in our family always seek independence. Where intuitive concern and the learned meet. Where my oldest living linage, my original human is found to be the most human.

In weariness. In confusion. In conflict. In sought. In tradition. In process.

I’m learning age doesn’t take from personality but rather intensifies it. Making potent what has been formed. Making sure it’s not just the experienced who learns from the experience.

The following photos were taken around her gibi (complex). As she pours, as birds sing, as we wait for rain. Also included is her voice. She tells stories of Buna; her thoughts and experiences and how she started drinking during her 13th year.

The holy water that waits outside her door.

Grandma mid coffee ceremony, she calls the neighbors to celebrate The Saint Virgin Mary’s birthday.

Every morning we sit outside and drink coffee (Egziabiher Yemesgne). In the heat we watch the birds bathe and perch on the lemon tree. Grandma told me the small blue birds only come during Meskerem (winter).

The oils from her pour made it seem like my cup was filled with the night sky.

She tells stories of Buna. It’s influence and consumption in our country. Her Grandma drinking, her drinking with her Grandma. That all things are a blessing from God and coffee is one of them. That she started drinking at 13years and hasn’t stopped.

Grandma’s traditional roast.

I’m thankful for this very surreal experience. Egziabiher Yemesgne.