I learned of this word and idea a year ago at my College. It seems that this is a Ghanaian word and has a special meaning. It is depicted by a flying bird that is looking back to retrieve an egg of its back. The literal meaning is that it is okay to go back and get something, but more importantly, the cultural meaning is that it is not wrong to go back and get what you have forgotten. And, what is more, the culture speaks of this idea of taking the good things from the past and bringing them into the present in order to make positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge.
Now, I realize that lots of people will not identify with the whole idea of some African proverb, so let me bring it to the moment for mystics and wishful mystics. Richard Rohr notes in one of his reflections that the contemplative life is not about assigning value and meaning to life events. Instead, contemplative life is about observing the Sacred presence in all that happens. This was the point of the Old Testament, to have a book that would call people to remember all of the things God has done for them.
It is also the point of the call in Church to remember our Baptism. In this way, like reciting the Apostle’s Creed, we are called to remember why we are at church and in the Christian life for. Rohr cites an author who says it this way, “we are sitting backward rowing the boat and we watch the world unfold behind us as we move forward.
And then it dawned on me, this is sankofa! This is the contemplative life, to see the works of the Eternal unfold as we move through this life. Scripture says “be still and know” and that fits. I know this first hand because of the changes in my life over the past several years. Once I gave up on the idea that I had to be in control of my life and that I had to assign some great meaning to everything that happens, I began to truly be contemplative and my life brightened.
I have the great support of a wife who helps me live this way. I now start most days looking for the patterns that happen. All of my recent contemplation and reading keeps pushing me to live in the moment and to bring the positives of the past with me as I reflect on the day that has unfolded. It has worked well for me for the last five years or so and it keeps getting better.
The best part of sankofa is that I don’t have to be in control of things. I don’t have to seek the meaning in every moment. Instead, I can live free of the have to’s that were from the first half of my spiritual life. These days I try to let life unfold and just enjoy the ride. I think being out of control, so to speak, is the true contemplative life. I know who is in control, so I do not have to worry anymore.
TMM