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creation offers the opportunity to take from the table all that we ever need so we can acheive the best we ever dreamed. Thanks for visiting here.

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Friday, October 30, 2009

PROMISES

A promise is a promise

To love your tender eyes

Even when pain racks

A promise is a promise

To bring home the glory

From life’s painful sweat

A promise is a promise

To walk the plank

Of life’s stormy seas

A promise is a promise

To grab a goal of light

And weave sheens of fate

A promise is a promise

To walk in gardens pure

Of roseate hues of love

A promise is a promise

To guide this tiny fingers

To the altar of light

A promise is a promise

May your name stick

Like lilies to you

May the promise of light

Find within your might

Rich soil of roses

May you swing in

The name given

For child,

A promise is a promise indeed.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Fable of my widow.

I married a widow,

Ere she opened a window,

So I can play a fiddle,

To the song I can paddle,

As full troth of my shingle.

She brought to my table

Lots of roses, silk and sable,

And on sultry silky saddle,

I cradled her with fables

Of things I am able.

Two score and Ten

We are still able,

To tell tales of fables

Of things I’ve been able

To bring to the table

And she has more sables

I married a widow

And life opened a window

Of what I am able.

Monday, October 26, 2009

CAN WE REALLY TALK ABOUT THIS?

Communication in its simple terms is the process by which people exchange information or express their thoughts and feelings. It is thus really a two way process of information exchange. This exchange can be verbal, active, impassive or non-verbal. We communicate constantly. It is part of our everyday life. From us to the receiver. We have a constant two way exchange. Now we want to look not just at this means of communication, we also are considering the role of youths in using these communications strategies to effect behavioral change. That sounds like quite a mouthful! The youth today unlike the youth of yesterday has come quite under a lot of pressures. He is bombarded at every turn with a variety of information format that he needs to be careful, on thetypes of information he can trust.

What determines the behavior of a person, his beliefs and drives his ambitions and dreams?

There are basically the environment, culture, society and to some level religion.

Value systems prevalent in the society also concern youth as they are also affected by all we have mentioned. Parents are the first socializing agents for a child until his consciousness is awakened to a level that he can process other forms of information format. So the parent is the first communication contact. The success or otherwise of that experience tend to color the negotiating and discerning ability of the child.

The African parent is as loving as any parent in any part of the world but as earlier said, the parent is a consequence of his society, his values and concepts.

There is however one factor he finds himself tongue -tied to talk about and it is the sexuality of the teenager. We were fed on a diet of innuendoes, rumors, and veiled hints! It excited our curiosity and brought us to experimental levels of our sexuality. Now sexuality education is being advocated and I ask if we are not a bit behind in coming to that recognition. I feel we got our act together a bit tardily!

Can we really talk about this? That is the first question that hits us when our child asks us questions that demands our definitions of sexuality Should we really? How come the child today is not satisfied with the same vague answers we were given when we were their age? We are left high and dry and sometimes frustrated by all the questions which seem endless. How come our culture is not coming to our aid when we are faced with these questions? Help! Children were supposed to be seen not heard.

So while we hedged and hawed and told the stories of the bees and the stork, they went to search for the information they needed from other factors of communication available to them.

Apart from the immediate family circle the youth contends with other communication factors to process information. These factors are:

The Print media, which sometimes are sources of information for youth and can have negative influences in their presentation of issues and goals. This negative influences could be in the promotion of a slim model as the ideal figure, confusing a growing child into striving to be just that type of person.

Electronic Media comprises the radio and television. Though the radio depends on the imagination of the listener to carry its more subtle messages across, television though is the more glamorous sister with an immediacy and believability that can influence the mores and concepts of a youth

The Internet today is a veritable minefield of information and carries the awesome potential of widening the horizon of the youth to heights or depths beyond his own imagination. The intelligent parent must thus educate himself on the need to be internet educated if he wants to guide the child.

Interpersonal channels like your mother, sister, pastor, friends, teachers or even youth centers carry some intimacy and engender some level of trust but may not necessarily be the best channel for accurate and precise information! Youth talk more freely amongst themselves but are also veritable containers of misinformation, myths and inaccurate information sometimes.

Since communication is the cornerstone of a healthy relationship, it is important to appreciate its importance as a means of behavioral change. The internet has widened the horizon of our young persons but has terrified the average parent into hurriedly seeking some level of understanding of the internet. For a discerning and concerned parent the internet has been a two edged sword offering a widening of the child's horizon but also the risk of enhancing negative tendencies.

The African parent has found that he must step up his knowledge and horizon if he wishes to be relevant and useful to the growth of his child and enhance the quality of the continuity of his line. We welcomed the internet with tentative smiles and watched in anxious fascination the enchantment of our children.

It is time to talk. We can really talk about it. We must talk about it. It is no longer okay to grunt and warn of dire consequences, when they ask questions. Can we really talk about this? We must.

Friday, October 23, 2009

IS LIFE A ROUTINE?

It is a routine really when you wake up each day. It is a routine when you walk into your office. It is a routine, the fact of breathing in and out. It is a routine just being yourself. The trick is how to look forward to doing these routine things with some level of excitement. Close your eyes and see between your closed eyes the colours of your hopes. You will notice the way it ebbs and flows with each second your thoughts shape the dream. Your dreams thank goodness for most of the time are not routine. Take a walk in the woods, the gardens, or just watch the ebb of humanity as they flow past you. Each face is a story, each walk a dance of dreams and hopes and you ask yourself so many questions not from idle curiosity but from gratitude that you can feel. It is also at some level a type of sameness, the everyday hunger in its varied forms. The hunger to feel the love of another human soul beating as closely as yours, and in tandem with your dreams.
It really does not feel like it is routine to come into the room and see the happy smile of a child in welcome. It feels all tingly and warm when you have agonized about the rightness of a decision and you find someone agrees with you. Essentially thus, routine or sameness or boredom is a choice. We can look into creation and pick from it the essentials we need to fashion our own compass. That is living and life thus cannot be a routine as to be boring.
There are some basic things we have taken for granted and expect as given. We take as given, that we should open our eyes each day to the glory of a creation we have spent millennia trying to understand. Maybe we should stop the yawn mid-way and take a slow look around. We are in the world not part of it but we are in it for a purpose I imagine or else what would be the essence of dreams? Somehow the essentials we need to make life worth living are always available.
Just imagine if the air got bored just being there for us? Just imagine if the seas just got bored being host to all the marine life forms in it. Imagine if the mountains just got almighty tired of us and moved off! Just imagine if all of creation just got bored with us in it as the moaning and groaning lot we are at the moment and closed shop as it were?
Life offers the constant motion to move, change the fabric we do not care for and weave any design we wish. Life is definitely not boring for it is constantly creating and recreating opportunities for us. Close your eyes, feel on the windows on your heart, the softness of the morning dew like a silky petal bringing the soft kiss of a shy sun on your sleep caressed soul with the promise that yesterday is history. Here comes today, pregnant and anxious to deliver to you all you wish.
If you had but a second to reflect, you will really not see anything as a routine not even the grind of a global recession! Now you definitely would not! Life cannot be a routine but a constant celebration to weave the brightest sheen you possibly can, after all creation sent the sun, the rain, the snow, and all its other creatures to let you know the Creator has you in mind!
When you consider all these, you will be hard put to say life is a routine. Life is the most exciting journey we ever embarked upon and sometimes the destination or bus stop could become fuzzy but it really is exciting being able to say, I am a member of the great Creation Story.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Imagine

In a room full of laughter
your soul is quiet

In a cold dank cell
the heat of your longing
keeps you sweating

The starry skies
the soft call of doves
brings you close to tears

Butterflies flit the air
buttercups in your hair
you should be laughing

The thump of your heart
as you sit by the hearth
and the embers glow golden

How lonely the stars feel
how desperately I miss you
how long I sat in the dark
your hand to touch in the dark
one soul to beat as mine
Imagine…
If really you could
Just imagine.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

When you know...

If it needs propping,
if it limps,
it needs defending,
If it needs support,
If it needs enforcement,
It is not the truth.

If it needs a vote,
If it needs a voice,
If it needs soldiers,
If it needs bolsters,
It is not the truth.

If it is relative,
If it is combative,
If it is discriminative,
If it is aggressive
It is not the truth.

If it stands freely,
If it serves truly,
If it stands impersonal,
If it stands eternally,
Then it is the truth.
The truth is life,
The truth is light,
The truth furthers
The truth strengthens

Seek the truth,
So you can truly be free.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Bury Me in a Prado Jeep

In his teens
greed for wealth
he went into contest
with his peers from other side of the street.

The need to have a ride
whether earned or not
so he whispered his longing
to the representative of the oracle
tell the stars
I want a Prado Jeep

Bring to the grove,
the innocence of
the blood of one untried
and soon the wealth is yours
croaked the old wizard

He stole a twin
with the promise of candied sweets
and offered the wizard
the strangled cry of the twin;
the agonized torture of a mother
the fearful haunting
the beheaded grimace of innocence
as silent witness
tore his sleep to pieces

from the tiny watching eyes
he had buried four feet standing by the stream
to the stern looks of justice
in the dock at last
he revises his need
to obtain without sweat
the luxury of death


as the hammer fell on his life
a whispered longing escaped
his parched cracked lips
one more last request
bury me in a Prado jeep!

He was buried him in a Prado grave
six feet standing upright
next to the tiny staring eyes
by the stream
of his warped dreams!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Waiting for GODOT

You really have taken your time haven’t you? I am sure I haven’t seen much of you this year!

Well, first I had to see some of my friends you know

and settle the question.

What question? Oh you mean you were one of them?

Of who? We are peaceful people, went to see my chairman. He really is a good negotiator, we agreed finally on the prize for his release?

What? You mean he is a party to…

Keep your voice down. Will you?

Now let us look at our Project. The boys have shown the stuff they are made of. I bet a lot of you have wide smiles when we brought the eggs out. Beautiful deadly eggs that we wanted you to hatch if you dared. Well your brother blinked and so we are now negotiating together, you should be smiling

I thought you guys had accepted the amnesty deal

Well, you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth do you? You think what they offer will keep the boys peaceful? It is only a matter of time. Where are they going to be getting the pittance they want to pay us from? I wish horses could really fly

I am not talking about a horse but a car, an expensive one. Wished my father had not left the police force!

Have you seen Richard?

Yeah, I heard they promoted him for stopping the eggs getting to port

Well, he is out of a job now. The chairman..

That you kidnapped?

Honestly, we are having a problem convincing the boys we need the peace.

Excuse me, but we don’t have a welfare state do we? I think it was pretty decent the amount that was voted to help them reha..

What is it now?

Richard makes an average of one hundred and fifty thousand a day

He could be dead in another twenty four hours, he is lucky we are not going to prosecute him

It is the season of peace and love.

Really? How did you manage to bring all these arms into the country?

Curiosity killed the cat.

You fellows don’t know the fine points of good public relations!

This is a good month. Creation renews itself and wears a new garb. Shall we wash our dirty clothes once and for all and take a look at a new dawn for the Peace Project Let us take these cowboys of creation to the laundry and have real wash. We all want a new country we wish to be proud of, but I wonder if we are prepared to lift a finger to help in the wash. Those who wish to attain the cold purity of the mountain heights, must be able to make the strenuous climb. How many of us really and truly give our supposed leaders a close second look? In my days, you don’t get a chieftaincy title just because your bank balance is hefty! It has gotten so bad that wives are seriously thinking of giving their husbands chieftaincy titles so he can look the other way when they fraudulently convert house -keeping cash for those endless headgears! We make such a moan about the level of corruption in the country but really do we believe this? Bribery to us is an automatic reflex action or thought! You know if there was any bidding going for this country and it was only one person left, he will offer a bribe to get it! Until he realizes no one is interested except himself!

Our very honourable thieves in all tiers of government may not be happy with the president. One civil servant in righteous anger told me that he is upsetting the apple cart! No matter how big your backside, it gets disgraced with a small fart! That is how he put it! The men in black are still doing business as usual because there is just no other way? The Eleventh commandment is ‘Thou shalt not get caught’? These kings who must have a fleet of cars for their bloated desires and egos will almost sell everything of the kingdom to fatten their bank accounts! Honour should not be for sale! It should be earned! When custodians of integrity dole and sell our collective dignity, on which wall shall we nail our theses?

Friday, October 9, 2009

Story telling: a lost African art

In the old days in Africa, we taught ourselves values through stories. We had quite a lot of stories. We used all the methods we could then. Some stories were songs that spoke of the heroic battles of our heroes. We had heroes that everyone in the community could identify with. We had stories of animals through which we told our children the virtues of life like honesty, honour, loyalty and courage. Animals represented different things and concepts. For instance from my part of the world, we had stories of tortoise being shown as wily, cunning, sometimes hilarious but always with an underlying lesson for us. It was natural every evening after the day's work to sit by the fireplace, or under a big tree and hear of the escapades of the tortoise. However in all these stories of the tortoise, a thread of a code of ethics was woven for us. It was usual at the end of each story for the story teller to ask us the listening children, what was the lesson of the story.

In the broader sense at the government level, we had festivals, that were used to teach the leaders the essence of honour and integrity. Such festivals were usually some kind of masque in which erring leaders were lampooned in songs, drama and such devices that sent the message home. It was understood that the actors of any masque could not be punished. The victim who felt very bad at being lampooned would naturally keep to his farm for a few days and weeks depending on the severity of the satire. He returned to the larger community after a time hoping everyone had forgiven or forgotten that misdemeanor. You however notice that in his anxiety not to have the same experience the following year, he would amend his ways.

Society was friendly, knew its place and governance was at most times benevolent and inclusive. Story telling had its uses and was a simple form of entertainment as well as instrument of instruction. Sadly however, the story is radically different today in my part of the world. The only viable story telling we can tell each other these days are of poverty, disease,(some really strange ones our forefathers never heard of) and of our insensitivity to each other. In those golden yesteryears, a thief could not find succor in any place unless he changed his ways. His family disowned him. His community would reject him and no matter how wealthy he became, he was never given a chieftaincy title. The community will watch him in derision if he even attempted to contribute to the common wealth of the people.

Today, there is no more story telling. There is no more sitting by the big tree to watch the moon, sing to the moon or tell stories of the escapades of the tortoise. There are no more moonlit games or wrestling or folksongs or beauty pageants in which we show off our African hairdos. What we have now is the television that has made apes out of the dignified African, the fashion that has stripped us naked and left us naked. The thieves get chieftaincy titles now and sometimes decided the course of a people that was once proud and self sustaining.

We can still go back to the story telling days. We can still use stories to change our concepts to something noble and uplifting. We may not be able to physically sit by the big tree, but we can still tell stories about honour and integrity for these stories are as timeless as the virtues they preach. It is the essence of real civilization. Do we still have good story tellers?

Death

i saw him across the room

we exchanged glances once in a while

he threw me a smile then a wink

he would escort someone to the door and shoo them out

there was a fellow next to him who seemed to hover all the time

I wondered as I tried to get a connection with the old guy upstairs

then he came over

he looked nice

he wore this and that

in a mild voice he said

don't mind all the noise people say about me

I am nice really

a good escort it is my twin that causes all the uproar

he walked away I asked after his twin

He turned and smiles

I am death this is my twin –fear

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Accidents in Creation

Accidents by their very meaning imply something unplanned for. A vacuum existing without reason, form, or rationale. A lack of the understanding of the immutable laws of creation lends itself to the quite illogical conclusion that there can be accidents in creation.
We understand accident as an unplanned mishap, that may result in injury, damage or something unpleasant. Scientist say creation was the result of a big bang, an accident, but we know deeply that our coming to Earth cannot just be by accident! In truth, things do not just happen. Life did not just come about unplanned, but as a result of development and grace.
When we say we met someone by accident, or shrug and say it was a chance happening it is simply because we lack the knowledge of understanding one of the basic laws of creation, The laws in absolute accordance with the will of the creator to ensure Justice, love and Mercy.
These laws ensure that there can be no accidents in creation, and probably underlines the reason for the stricture of Christ when he said ‘if ye are slapped on one cheek… in essence, turn the other for we may not know the history of the slap or from where it had originated. But the love of the Lord makes it possible for us to right pass wrongs when the seeds of this wrong have ripened and we are perforce made to partake of it.
This law of sowing and reaping is so finely worked that a wrong may never go unaccounted for with the same token our good seeds come to us for it to be redeemed as well. So when situations sometimes occur that look somewhat arbitrary, it is so because we lacked the knowledge to understand the beginning of the apparent chance meeting or happening. These so called chance meetings or accidents are loving opportunities from the Almighty Father to redeem threads of our weaving.


Every opportunity is made available by the creator for us to make progress so we can return to paradise to experience our deep longing to be conscious in the closest proximity of the Light..If we understand that seeds we sow have different times of maturing, as creation teaches us through our agricultural activities, we may thus recognize that the maturing our acts of spiritual sowing will mature at different times and for some maybe several incarnations before the fruit is ripened.
The nature of our activity from the moment of our sowing to when the fruit ripens determines if the harvesting might simply be pleasant or unpleasant.It may be having someone over-run your goods, or you walk into an office and you happen to be the one that can be employed for that dream job you never thought you could get or even miss boarding a plane that later crashes with no survivor. It was not really an accident or chance. It is in accordance with the law and underlined when Christ declared in absolute terms that not one law will go unfulfilled.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

THE POLITICS OF THE SPHINX

I am thinking of going back to school. No, it is to learn some old Egyptian script. I think it is the only way I will understand the new language of the politician. Suddenly we need a new dictionary to understand simple greetings. This year will be recorded in creation as the most bewildering and interesting the history of our street. It is the year in which what you say does not have to be believed even if you act it out because we have boxed ourselves into a corner. The psychiatrist will watch us with quite a lot of interest. We badly want to accept that what our leaders tell us is gospel, but then have you ever heard of honor amongst thieves?

But why are you sighing?

I am sighing because you are such a dreamer and I wish I have a way to ask you to accept the inevitable

You mean I do not have a choice about the present situation in my street?

You could always emigrate; there is not much difference from one thief to another, not really

Hey! Trying to kill yourself or something why did you take off like that?

I find it amusing and strange, even alarming that we have collectively decided on selective hearing…

My grandmother used to say if you know someone is a liar wait until you catch him out in the lie then…..

Wow!

I did not say you had to yell!

So what do I do with these new set of thieves?

A friend of mine gave a yowl of pain when I said that. I understood him. He was a member of the last rat pack in my street and ate himself obese! These days, his neck is beginning to look the worse for wear! Why do we really find it so hard to learn what service is truly meant to be? Have you ever seen them after they have been elected into office? First, they spend precious time fighting each other to accept the legality or illegality of the election. The ‘elected’ official is so wrapped up in ensuring his pot of mess that he converts the street treasury to his personal treasury. Then comes the new words, new promises

Then there is the political collateral damage.

You mean political appointees?

I mean political victims.

If you ever smiled at any of the old thieves..

But they are thieves! You had no business smiling at them!

Seems you all are together, this is the only street where there are no living heroes until they are dead and not likely to challenge your claims!

Stick with the point

I really think you should go back to school. You know the whole frigging lot and learn first the true meaning of the word service

To who? Now I distinctly remember that you did not vote for me. I will have you know that I am a duly elected member of this street!

Your case is still in court

But I won

Your opponent did not think so, international observers said…

Oh, the international observers only wanted to be considered for a contract my opponent promised them..
Ostrich!

What?

I said you did not tell me you had changed your name?

What?

Shouldn’t you return to the courtroom, I think I see the judge coming in?

What?

The Bailiff's visit

It rained the day the bailiff came
the clouds huddled together
his knock was muffled
by the rumbles of thunder
and the cries of the children

With the moon in his eyes.
he stared at the children
with hunger in their bellies
in a croak he announced
‘Summons to a divorce’
Something stuck in his throat
her hand in the pot
heart in her eyes, she shook her head
as the sun wailed with her
it rained the day the bailiff came

The soup smelled of her burnt hopes
the children ate from the
shards of pain left behind.
they made dreams out of tears
fed from the sweat of her brows
she became frayed with nerves
but defied the day the bailiff came

A score and ten years later
the silver streaked her hair
the children made garlands
from dreams they held
buoyed by the fire of her spirit

Now a smile of peace
her heart mended
by the rain that soaked
away her pain
left behind, the day the bailiff came

Peace

He who cannot walk away
From his anger,
Cannot in trust,
Approach the peace of Love.

Those who betray us,
Those who revile us,
Those who hate us,
Show through their ugliness,
The awesome beauty,
Of Light’s compassion,
As they mirror to us,
What we must never be.