the gravitational pull of 10 moons

A lecture on lightning, yin-yang, and you as the conduit almost brought me to tears tonight. Something about touching the heavens and the moons on the tips of my great grandfather's fingers. I met him when I was 5, my first trip home. His body was frail, leathered skin hung loosely on bones. He could not walk without assistance but he would crawl like the inchworms on the guyebano trees. His spirit ever driving him forward. He whispered his raspy voice in people's ears. Anak ni Rebing. they screamed in his ear Tingnan niyo, heto as they pulled my mother to his side. He was not the man she left 20 years ago, she was no longer the dalaga. I do not know if they recognized each other.

He is now a parceled story to me. A generous man who talked to spirits, walked on fire, and swung sticks. When he slept they said he used to reach towards heaven. The children thought it was funny. No matter how hard they tried to pull his arm down to his side, it would some how spring back up, the gravitational pull of 10 moons.

I could have asked for his stick 8 years ago, but refused. I did not feel worthy or ready for such power. When I returned 4 years later, his stick was lost and he all but forgotten in the memory of his aging sons.

Tonight I reached for him as my hand stretched higher into the darkness of the night. Tonight I might have touched the heavens and found him there.