Imagine the first bursts of Light as it streamed through creation on a fiat and life in its varied meaning took on form, substance and colour. Life as we have come to know it pulsated through the creation and what came to be known as mankind lay rested at the extreme as a fluffy germ of life pulsing with promise but quiet. Imagine the streams of love that washed all over creation, the thousands of millions of the hues of the Light energizing and reactivating all that carried life, a promise of it and the fulfillment of such a promise. Consciousness was and still is a latent possibility. Eternity was born and immortality became a possibility for all that carried life. The conformation of that happened.. Love in all its roseate majesty is!
Love, a state of being. Love is. Could you describe it? Could you hold it? Could you give it form and rationale? Like a rose it tantalizes you and demands unceasingly as it shows you how to give unceasingly. Do you dare understand the many strands and colours? Could you serve? We tend to think of the attributes of it as the weak submissive one that says yes to every single request! The ones that came by love through the by way of religion insult its intelligence that the Almighty must propitiate them before they can deign to serve 'their creator'. At their peril, they forget that Love's first daughter was/is Eternity! She can wait.
When a tiny creature slips forth into our creation called forth by our longing to achieve immortality, our love is simple and profound at the same time. We watch in wonder as we watch the tiny fingers, the tiny features, helpless and we assume trusting us that we shall do right by it? We are ready and willing at the time to bring ourself to do everything to ensure that the child has everything it needs. Our love is simple and profound! A sense of gratitude to whatever faith we profess makes us humble and joyful. This is a gift, a treasure! All our hopes becomes embedded in the child. We look into the future, as the child becomes the crystal ball through which we can spy the future. Life has a meaning.
We look into the eyes of the child, and we suddenly make pledges to be all we can be for the child. It is the first time we say to ourselves through our spirit that 'yes we can!' Raise a child, give the child all we can. Do you remember as you promised? We all did. Then we also made some silent assumptions that the child will be a source of joy to us, a source of pride. We looked forward to sunset of colours of achievement. The green of service, the brown of study, the pulsing red of valour and courage, the purple hues of nobility and integrity. We did. We had said Yes to all these.
But wait, did we forget something? Was the child really truly and completely ours to do as we willed? Could we own a human spirit truly and completely? How come the child suddenly has a different opinion? Wherefore this rebellion we now espy in the child? Something ineffably his has broken forth! We reluctantly give it a name. Free will. What a come down from the heights of deciding for the child. We had decided the food, school, clothes and all that. Had given the right inoculations and protection for safety, in fact assured ourselves of own immortality by lending the child our name! How did we plan on taking the name back anyway?
Love is simple and profound as we painfully step aside, offer service that may be rejected. Love is simple and eternal as we anxiously watch as the former child now an adult takes its faltering steps in picking his own compass, putting aside our own carefully prepared compass that we had handed over. Love helps us understand when we watch for the first heartbreak and toss on the bed as we listen to the heart rending sobs in the night! We could not have an antidote for that. The heart needs to grow too just like the body grew.
Love helps us to offer the supper scarce enough when the child calls to say, he has lost his job again! Love teaches to make the most painful step to ask a child who stopped growing that he must leave the nest even when you know he must spend the night under the bridge! You agonize, you know he has become too big to fit into your heart, but you make room all the same! You do all these and much more, because you see, those light years ago when you left the light beach as a germ and came into matter, PERFECT LOVE, gave you same opportunities and has been just as anxious for your safe return!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
One day at a time
The crock crowed
on our mats we turned
from sleepy dreams we rose
baskets on our heads
dawn paths we followed
As we walked
the sun prodded the earth
with first tiny gold fingers
lighting up the day
Father’s cutlass flashed
a path from the untamed green
another thud of his hoe
mounds shape the landscape
in steps we follow
hands dipped in the mounds
left seeds in its warmth
The bite of the sun
mid stride in the sky
father’s glistening spine
stops the slide of sweat
we munch between the rest
last season’s harvest of sweat
The winds cools our cheeks
the sun goes home to bed
we make our way home and sing
happy from today’s sweat
The fireflies by the fire
the sun’s mistress silvers
our rosy cheeks with silver
even as mother’s tales
by moonlight
lights the path to a peaceful slumber.
on our mats we turned
from sleepy dreams we rose
baskets on our heads
dawn paths we followed
As we walked
the sun prodded the earth
with first tiny gold fingers
lighting up the day
Father’s cutlass flashed
a path from the untamed green
another thud of his hoe
mounds shape the landscape
in steps we follow
hands dipped in the mounds
left seeds in its warmth
The bite of the sun
mid stride in the sky
father’s glistening spine
stops the slide of sweat
we munch between the rest
last season’s harvest of sweat
The winds cools our cheeks
the sun goes home to bed
we make our way home and sing
happy from today’s sweat
The fireflies by the fire
the sun’s mistress silvers
our rosy cheeks with silver
even as mother’s tales
by moonlight
lights the path to a peaceful slumber.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
MEMORIES
I am pleased to remember,
those nights I loved you,
I am scared to count,
the costs of loving you,
How shall I remember?
your first sunny smile
your first faltering step
When you called me Mama?
I am quick to remember,
your first day at school,
your first lessons of love,
How can I not remember?
your first wet kiss
when I kissed your toes
as you stubbed it at life?
I am happy to remember,
when lessons by candle light
we tried to make the grade
as you learned to sharpen
your wit and intellect,
How can I not remember?
as we planned and hoped
that the gold will come
entwined in a joint dream.
I am pained to remember
when you had naught
to remember your need
to make as good a nest as me
you took flight and left
to make nest for another
Now gray and old
from light slumber
I watch the sun golden
In what I’m beholden
now I remember and wonder
as your seed takes steps
from one toothed smile
of sunny wonder
fresh springs of blossoms
a single wet sloppy kiss
an exchange of another age
the word moves to another
‘Granma’ for ‘Mama’.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
There's a saying
from my side of the street
a woman must not
come married with
two left legs
the essence of
her dowry
must be the increase
in the fortunes
of her husband.
Since we married
he has built
more houses
bought more cars
his farm is bigger
in celebration of
his increased fortunes
he has brought in
another wife
I wish I had
two left legs!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The call came
one lazy afternoon,
as I roasted corn
and mother made food
the word rang out
witch!
we ran and I heard
the screams of mother
dust in my eyes and ears
stones hitting her flesh
my bloodied fear
as she panted her innocence
mingled with stunned denial
the silent march to the grave
In darkened corners
mother’s ghost still whimpers
and my hate is still fresh
my vengeance assured
to those who gave
the shout
that closed my future
Monday, November 2, 2009
THE LOGIC OF FAITH
Faith is a derivative of conviction and the conditions of conviction are based firmly on your experience. If no one has ever given you a slap, you would be hard put to accept that it could be painful. Do we thus wait until we have experienced the Almighty before we accept His existence or do we look through his creation and in experiencing the laws he has embedded in them do we then have faith?
How do you hold faith when you go to work, smile desperately at the boss and hope he will not call you round to his office, adjust his tie as your Adam's apple suddenly lodges itself on the wrong side of your throat and you stare at him waiting for him to spill the beans! Then he simply asks you if you have submitted the weekly report. Then you were on the edge of your faith thinking he was a nice guy.
How do you hold faith when you are afraid to answer the phone as you know the caller at the end of the line is your account officer and your bills have been due for more than the required grace period? You are sitting at the edge of your faith my friend when you lose count of the number of job applications you have filled and as your choices diminish your preferences take a dive into slime and you would apply for any job!
You are done fighting, you are done beefing about the egg heads who sold out your tomorrow even before you planned for today. Man! You are done! Pretty nigh extinguished in fact! You are done, see? Because you just counted the pennies in your pocket and it is only enough to buy death! Really? Don't go over the edge of your faith.
Sounds trite, but as boring as it is to read, there is always reason enough to wake up and smile. Move away from the edge of your faith, feel the steady beat of your heart, the next beat might be the change you need. God knows it is true! After all you are actually reading this! Imagine!
How do you hold faith when you go to work, smile desperately at the boss and hope he will not call you round to his office, adjust his tie as your Adam's apple suddenly lodges itself on the wrong side of your throat and you stare at him waiting for him to spill the beans! Then he simply asks you if you have submitted the weekly report. Then you were on the edge of your faith thinking he was a nice guy.
How do you hold faith when you are afraid to answer the phone as you know the caller at the end of the line is your account officer and your bills have been due for more than the required grace period? You are sitting at the edge of your faith my friend when you lose count of the number of job applications you have filled and as your choices diminish your preferences take a dive into slime and you would apply for any job!
You are done fighting, you are done beefing about the egg heads who sold out your tomorrow even before you planned for today. Man! You are done! Pretty nigh extinguished in fact! You are done, see? Because you just counted the pennies in your pocket and it is only enough to buy death! Really? Don't go over the edge of your faith.
Sounds trite, but as boring as it is to read, there is always reason enough to wake up and smile. Move away from the edge of your faith, feel the steady beat of your heart, the next beat might be the change you need. God knows it is true! After all you are actually reading this! Imagine!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
LOVE: THE ESSENCE OF LIFE
Love is the essence of life. It is where all life begins, and the foundation for every dignifying emotion man has been capable of expressing. Where love is missing, there is no life. Creation itself rotates on the axis of love. The love of the Creator is the beginning of creation. Our being here therefore is the answer of the creator to our request to explore the full potentials of the human spirit.
It is the essence of creation and the rationale for our individual incarnations! Love in its eternal essence gives the most treasured gift that man has, Hope. An acceptance of the love of the Creator, helps us to understand His Laws and we make attempt to adapt ourselves to these laws. In a dim human way, we attempt to return this love. When we do not have the essence of love, we become very critical and intolerant. However, we tend to translate this love in too much of a human way, in our concept of how we are to express it. We know of the love of our parents and sometimes take that for granted or give it expectations that are self serving. We love a child and expect the child to be an extension of our dreams and so we feel disappointed when the child expresses innately its own identification of self.
Can love be critical and tough? Yes it can, it actually must, if it tends to fulfill its primary responsibility of bringing out the best in the object of love. The rub is, we must be clear when we are critical, what we are being critical of. The ability to be objective is actually the first spring of love. To see in its totality, a person, or situation and in the process of that assessment, carry the ability to be helpful for the benefit of the person, object or situation. It is therefore sometimes essential to understand that love can be tough. This is however based on the principle that even a blind person should be able to 'see' the love in the correction you offer a loved one.
There is the confusion to see love as constantly self sacrificing, weak and submissive. If we sincerely look at the essence of human spirit, we will agree that it is wrong to expect a human spirit to be submissive for he is not made that way. His lack of self exertion thus is a consequence of indolence, indulgence and an inability to make use of his given free will. He has chosen to take the soft option. A vibrant love, is clear sighted about the limitations of the recipient of his love but will want to see and seek opportunities to offer serving love as distinct from self serving administration of selfish considerations!
At a sublime level therefore is the love of the Creator, who has set in motion opportunities for each human spirit to arrive at the peak of his possibilities, and abilities. He has instituted into creation thus, certain laws that is not in any way religious nor does it advocate a religion. These laws by their very essence defines for man the essence of what we mean by freedom and offers man the gateway to supreme personal happiness and attainment. It enforces compliance irrespective of our understanding of these laws. We live in creation, are in it but not of it as we all sense that there is much more than we can see, hear, sense and touch.
These laws are anchored in the Love of the Creator. They offer to man the keys to a life that can be happy. It invites us to be self critical, exert ourselves and offers both an explanation and a way to those things in creation we are puzzled about. It offers through the laws of reciprocity, that maturing fruits started from seed level and could be different from one seed to the other according to the specie of the act.
Man lives his life at three levels. He plants the consequences of his life on these levels. His words are immediate and therefore active, just as his actions can be seen by all. However a more potent aspect of his life is his thoughts and because of the nature of their ability to be cloaked if it so wishes, we sow thought forms that might take eons to fructify! We however take relief in the knowledge that in understanding of the quirks of human nature, the Creator in love anchored this law so we might learn and grow. That is love too.
In the laws of the Creator, no man is condemned except by himself when he fails to understand the beauty and concept of love. Thus simply put, love is the essence of life. The very many trails we face, in our personal lives and jointly as a community or as a nation are opportunities offered to be better than our yesterdays. The growth to arrive at the apex of our existence as truly human spiritual!
It is the essence of creation and the rationale for our individual incarnations! Love in its eternal essence gives the most treasured gift that man has, Hope. An acceptance of the love of the Creator, helps us to understand His Laws and we make attempt to adapt ourselves to these laws. In a dim human way, we attempt to return this love. When we do not have the essence of love, we become very critical and intolerant. However, we tend to translate this love in too much of a human way, in our concept of how we are to express it. We know of the love of our parents and sometimes take that for granted or give it expectations that are self serving. We love a child and expect the child to be an extension of our dreams and so we feel disappointed when the child expresses innately its own identification of self.
Can love be critical and tough? Yes it can, it actually must, if it tends to fulfill its primary responsibility of bringing out the best in the object of love. The rub is, we must be clear when we are critical, what we are being critical of. The ability to be objective is actually the first spring of love. To see in its totality, a person, or situation and in the process of that assessment, carry the ability to be helpful for the benefit of the person, object or situation. It is therefore sometimes essential to understand that love can be tough. This is however based on the principle that even a blind person should be able to 'see' the love in the correction you offer a loved one.
There is the confusion to see love as constantly self sacrificing, weak and submissive. If we sincerely look at the essence of human spirit, we will agree that it is wrong to expect a human spirit to be submissive for he is not made that way. His lack of self exertion thus is a consequence of indolence, indulgence and an inability to make use of his given free will. He has chosen to take the soft option. A vibrant love, is clear sighted about the limitations of the recipient of his love but will want to see and seek opportunities to offer serving love as distinct from self serving administration of selfish considerations!
At a sublime level therefore is the love of the Creator, who has set in motion opportunities for each human spirit to arrive at the peak of his possibilities, and abilities. He has instituted into creation thus, certain laws that is not in any way religious nor does it advocate a religion. These laws by their very essence defines for man the essence of what we mean by freedom and offers man the gateway to supreme personal happiness and attainment. It enforces compliance irrespective of our understanding of these laws. We live in creation, are in it but not of it as we all sense that there is much more than we can see, hear, sense and touch.
These laws are anchored in the Love of the Creator. They offer to man the keys to a life that can be happy. It invites us to be self critical, exert ourselves and offers both an explanation and a way to those things in creation we are puzzled about. It offers through the laws of reciprocity, that maturing fruits started from seed level and could be different from one seed to the other according to the specie of the act.
Man lives his life at three levels. He plants the consequences of his life on these levels. His words are immediate and therefore active, just as his actions can be seen by all. However a more potent aspect of his life is his thoughts and because of the nature of their ability to be cloaked if it so wishes, we sow thought forms that might take eons to fructify! We however take relief in the knowledge that in understanding of the quirks of human nature, the Creator in love anchored this law so we might learn and grow. That is love too.
In the laws of the Creator, no man is condemned except by himself when he fails to understand the beauty and concept of love. Thus simply put, love is the essence of life. The very many trails we face, in our personal lives and jointly as a community or as a nation are opportunities offered to be better than our yesterdays. The growth to arrive at the apex of our existence as truly human spiritual!
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