“Menkh Bikat” Morning Greetings

By: Zebekiya Merutepiaou

I don’t wake up every morning with the pleasure and honor to plant my feet in the African sand, to bathe outside, to cleanse my spirit, and to delightfully greet my community of elders, family, and friends in the compound. My mornings in Africa during the two pilgrimages I took there humbled me immensely and forced me to align more with the natural cycle of nature. Mornings there showed me how to acknowledge elders, patriarchs, and matriarchs as one of the first practices one can do to show respect and gain blessings for the day.

I do, however, wake up in my home in Little Rock, Arkansas (also known as the Natural State), with many trees, hills, mountains, lakes, and rivers. I’m a city girl who has an affinity for country living and being in nature. In the mornings, I’m up and grateful to have been blessed to wake up to another day of growth. “What will I accomplish today?” I’m thinking. My morning routine has me getting up, cleaning myself as I reflect on what I dreamt of in my sleep the night before. I’m tidying up, drinking a sip of water in the morning, warming some tea, getting my kids' outfits out for the day, and joining them as we collectively do ablutions (an African spiritual cleansing). I’m acknowledging my Ancestors and expressing gratitude for all they have done, are doing, and the things they plan to do. While kneeling down in my prayer space, I’m going before them at the start of my day, seeking their guidance and blessing for the day that I may fulfill the goal or destiny of that day. I rise up in confidence and with the comfort that they are with me and that my attention won’t sway to disgrace them or myself with my conduct. 

I’m feeding the indoor cats, changing the litter, oiling faces, preparing a light breakfast, making sure shoes are on the correct feet, backpacks are grabbed, and watering and rotating the herbs my family planted to increase our “green thumb”. I’m grabbing the food set aside for the Ancestors and taking it outside. I’m placing the food at the base of a huge oak tree in my backyard as I greet it and show gratitude for the protection and the stability it provides to nature and the inside and outside of my home in both the material and immaterial dimensions. 

It was not long ago, I was blessed with the visit of an elder, a traditional priest and humble leader from the African soil. Upon hearing that I was placing my food offerings at a small tree in my yard, he pointed to a huge, much more stable tree as the best spot. Since then, I’ve changed the place that receives my offerings. 

I’m transforming. I’ve grown beyond the stage of just keeping my loved ones who have transitioned in my heart and mind to learning how to elevate them. Through an energetic lightness of heart, I now provide them food that gives them what's needed to continue guiding and protecting me in my life.

 Wherever I am today, I’m making sure I’m giving my children those daily reminders to do their morning check-in with their father and grandparents so they can assimilate the family foundational principles just as I saw so beautifully done on pilgrimage. I’m exchanging pep talks, words of encouragement, and love to stay focused and make good decisions as we all part for the day. At work, I’m filling little pockets of time to check in with my mother. These valuable, eventful, “a.m.” fruitful actions have grown to be my sweet morning boost-offs that help me and my family not only have a healthy mindset but also the spiritual nourishment to face our challenges each day.