Highs and lows people, highs and lows. Life is sometimes like a boat on the ocean rising and falling as it rides the waves, rising high and dropping low.

And trust me peeps, I'm a bit dizzy right now because I feel like I've been riding those waves these past few days. First, there was the high of a wonderful weekend experience I had participating in a beautiful grounding among brethren in Hamilton, Ontario.

It was the heights of heights! Six of us, six strong African brothers, six hearts and minds united in an understanding and acceptance that our individual journeys are inexplicably intertwined, and conscious of the power of collective engagement. We gathered together to pray, share, talk, eat and commune together, and explore the ways we can strengthen and support each other as African men.

We formed and maintained a wonderful circle of healing and strength. We enjoyed anecdotes and stories, critiqued creative ideas and drank from a spring of love and laughter. We shared worries and weaknesses, revealed pain and vulnerabilities and received useful guidance and honest counsel from each other. We spent two days connected with and engaged with each other. I was on a spiritual high!

Hit hard

And then booduf!! Like a mischievous schoolyard prankster waiting around a corner to slap me in the face, or kick me in the gut, reality hit hard with the low, and reminded me again, how fragile, precious and unpredictable this life can be. Yes beloved, while I was returning to Toronto after the uplifting experience, I got the devastating news of the sudden passing of Clayton Lynch, a young artist in the prime of his life.

A dynamic and dedicated actor and dub poet Clayton [aka Dub Master Lynch] is a young man I had the pleasure and privilege of teaching at the Edna Manley College. A close friend of my son, he was like son to me as well.

He was always respectful, always willing to take correction and always eager to learn. He was full of plans, ambitions and ideas, and so inventive, intuitive and creative. And now, suddenly, he's gone.

I understand that he was a passenger in a car returning home after attending a happy family event, and the car got involved in a collision. Hear mi nuh man, I saw a picture that his niece Shantell Scully posted on Facebook, of Lynch laughing and playing with a child, with the words 'yesterday at his brother's wedding, hours away from his death' - and Jah know people, it mash up mi meditation. There he was, living, laughing and enjoying life; and then a few hours later, everything changed as he became one more victim to another tragic accident on the road.

I still can't fully come to grips with the news people. As the late Mikey Smith would say, 'mi cyaan believe it'!

box-mi-back@hotmail.com