Change

‘Change is inevitable and we should learn to embrace it.’ True maybe, but knowing that doesn’t make it any easier. What does ‘embrace’ even mean? Brace is what we do when we know that change is coming. The hit however doesn’t hurt any less does it?

Maybe the lead-up time does help, in a ‘Time heals all wounds’ kind of way. We hurt and we miss what was. Sometimes we try to cling on and hope to postpone the inevitable. Change happens and will continue to happen. All one can ask for is to be flexible enough to not break.

Clouds

A dark cloud hang over his head… A beautiful cloudless day… The sky hung heavy with the promise of rain… Somehow, the use of clouds in language tends to portend doom and gloom. Not for me though. A cloudless day for me is bare, empty. There’s only so much ‘blue’ my eyes can take. In our cities, far removed from the beauty of nature, a look up into the sky provides an instant reconnection with nature. The chaos of scattered clouds sometimes matches my chaotic thoughts, draws a calmness and elicits a smile. The brush strokes of the winds as they move draw a pretty picture, and as the day wanes and the sun plunges down the other side of the world, we get colour. The rays scattering all over, eliciting hues of yellow, orange and an unapologetic red… Yes I know am not doing any sunset justice, but I’ll stop and say; STOP picking on the clouds! Learn to look up, do so especially when you’re feeling down. Nature will surely move you.

Northern Kenya

I haven’t been to a more beautiful place than the northern parts of Kenya. More specifically the counties of Marsabit and Samburu. The drive there is in itself enough to restore your appreciation for nature. The A2 to Marsabit and further on to Moyale is just wow! Switching from the stone, tarmac, dust, noise and thin air of Nairobi, through the sparse farmlands of Murang’a, the vast rice and wheat farms of Mwea and Nyahururu and right on through to vast lands free of human exploitation is a wonder to see. Oceans and lakes tend to calm the soul. I’d say, seeing a hill rise up off the land and totally dominate it as you get closer does as much good. Multiply this experience many times over and peace is what you’ll never lack in the beautiful north.

And the people! The life! Simplicity in its purest form. Easy? Not so much. The conveniences of modern life; electricity, internet, a hot water shower, even tapped water might be absent but life isn’t diminished; its enhanced. When you have no notification chimes in the midst of your meal, you tend to talk and listen more. People have stories to tell, long tales to spin and a healthy laugh to share. All this in the midst of nature. Bugs! Never seen so many in my life. You get mosquitoes, beetles and moths, then stuff just becomes weird. Think you know your insects? Go light a torch and watch your knowledge get overwhelmed. I miss this place, the people, the life and I especially miss being out among nature.

Now what?

You’ve done it all, so now what? Why do you still want to do? Can you not just don’t? Where is the fun, the urgency the purpose of it all? Were you too busy doing to notice the beauty by the wayside? Did you make your hectic run and leave everyone and everything behind? So now what? You’ve done it all, but have you seen it all? Have you felt it all? Do your taste buds not have anything left to savor? Why don’t you stop doing, and start living? Living I say? How you ask? It’s simple really, next time you feel like doing, ask why.

People

People both fascinate and scare me. At any one instance it is nearly impossible to pick out what is driving a person. What thought or feeling one decides to act on may change and changes just as fast as the thoughts that we run through our minds. And let’s not forget external influences, if we can call them that at all. What compels a person to pick up a stone and join in on mob justice? Are we all really just feral animals that most times are caged by what we call willpower? Or maybe it’s not even our individual willpower but the collective will of society that keeps us in check.

Listening to children as they play and interact with each other, parents and ‘grown-ups’ provides a window into society’s structure. Children can be both honest and the most manipulative little… things. They’ll say, basi mi si friend yako. A phrase I find filled with meaning. First, the manipulation; if you don’t let me have my turn with your toy, you lose me as a friend. At that age, children understand what most adults ‘choose to forget’; friends are important. Second, the honest desire. I interpret it as I really want to continue being friends, so please let me have my turn so we can keep playing! There was supposed to be a third, but I forget what it is.

If only adults could learn to keep the honesty of their earlier years rather than growing into masters of manipulation.