Naomi

Naomi

This reflection may be read with plenty of pauses for digestion, as it encompasses a long life story. We often fail to recognise the implications of the actions detailed in the biblical narrative, but there must have been a ‘backstory’.

I followed him to another land
And there I did my duty.
I bore him beautiful dark-eyed sons.
Handsome and healthy,
Boys to make a mother proud.
I watched them grow
Into well-formed lads.
They were loyal and strong,
Laughing, with the love of life.
Clever, too, they held their own,
Attracting the attention
of fathers and matchmakers!

When they wed, we sang and dined,
Oh, such great celebration!
The girls came to work my house.
Fast friends, we soon became.
They honoured me as daughters should
And I loved them as mother.
In this foreign land of ours,
I came to know as home
The place where we cooked and sewed.
I ceased to miss the land of my birth
So far away, so long before.
I had been but a child when I left.
My life was here – with my husband,
sons and daughters.
Here, I shared his bed.
Here, I made his house a home.
Here, I built the future of his name.

Then…. It was lost. It was gone.

Women who survive childbirth are strong –
Strong enough to survive their men.
We expect to live, to weep our tears
And clean the body of our caressing.
We expect to mourn and pass the stories along.
We expect to impart wisdom…

We do not expect to bury our children.
We do not – we cannot stand by and see
The flesh of our flesh being wept over
Being prepared for burial – No!
Not my sons! Not my precious baby boys!
Oh – my dear daughters – No!
You cannot stay with me – you cannot!
To stay is to be cursed with death.
The widow’s mercy is as fragile as a leaf in a storm.
Go away! Return to your mothers.
I cannot protect you. (However much I love you…)
You must go.

(Naomi is Ruth’s mother-in-law, from the Book of Ruth)

© 2017, A.Koh-Butler