100. Old Self

"Stairway to Heaven" by Jim Warren

Old Self is a very old soul. Ancient. She lived with our ancestors, beyond our own birth times. She knows of their ways and she knows of their wisdoms. It is those she uses now. She imparts advice to those who have come very evening. Those of The Weavers, whose circle slowly grows larger. She tells tales, as any weaver should, of where our family comes from before this time. She talks of lands far away, south of the equator, hot tropics. Many languages spoken. Portuguese mainly. She speaks of a man who played banjo, one of our forefathers. Another of our foremother, a part black woman who died when her daughter was only 3 years old. Two  of us now carry on the name of that woman – Charlotte - our Sean-Charlotte (5) and Annie Charlie (1), and one of us carries the name of that daughter – Julia (1).

Old Self prefers to live alone in her own cabin. She has a lot of private work to do, work that cannot be seen by those of us in the community. Not yet. The Controller (2), a man almost as old as her converses with her from time to time and she shares some of her secrets with him, as is necessary. But most, she keeps to herself.

Her long braided hair is woven with the past, smudged and smoked to be make sacred and respected. She laughs often to herself. Once in a while the Elders come and they hold special meetings where she may share more of what she knows.