Stand out

“Sometimes I feel like a motherless child……a long way from home….” These words from one of my favourite timeless black spirituals by Mahalia Jackson hold bitter-sweet meaning for me because for every one of us, we each have our individual task of retrieving the Golden Fleece and we all must experience some moments of sheer overwhelming isolation and solitude but there is a purpose to be accomplished even when we feel like we have been orphaned by life. However what better time than now to get out of our comfort zone and do something for the good of the many. Hey! It’s the Yuletide season and what better time than now to do a lil something for someone else. Now the internet service might be crappy at my present location but I’m having one of the best times of my life just because I’ve got my very own Mona Lisa giving me a healthy helping of TLC…. Had my first ‘Welcome home’ cake in decades now, all colourful and pretty and I know that this time, I’m home. I may feel like a motherless child sometimes but I know the truth, I will love because I am loved by God.

“You will always have everything in life that you want, if you only will help enough other people get what they want” – Zig Ziglar. Hmmm! In the face of the accepted theory that human wants are insatiable, I opine that there are some basic wants that can and should be derived because like I tell most people, I have learned that life is unfair and you can only get from it what you think you deserve and insist on…..happiness, knowledge, self-esteem etc and in the last few days, I have been so blessed to have met the new friends I have and will forever be thankful for. This is by no means on account of what they have done but just the beauty of getting to know the beauty and uniqueness of each one of them. The list is endless but permit me to mention but a few – exceptionally outstanding Fyeomie, kind-hearted El Vixen who has a surgery tomorrow (do say a word of prayer for her because you choose to), defiant but caring Fikky…..these are who I have got that continually make me strive to make my own life count for more than many think its worth. “Friendship, of itself is made more sacred by adversity” – John Dryden

The malls are all crowded, the roads untiringly besieged daily by millions of poison emitting automobiles, carnivals here and there but my question is what makes us believe that this month must be characterised by how much others perceive we are able to display either ostentatiously or surreptitiously. What makes the average man choose to wait for just one day to make his shopping list count not so much for others but more for himself? What about the other 363 days that we awake to the exhilarating breath of the morning air and the exciting feel of blood coursing through our veins, everything telling us that we are alive not just to ourselves but for the purpose of making someone else appreciate that fact. I personally think that it’s an exercise in futility cramming our shopping for others into just one day because the world in itself competes with each other, we on the other hand as humans, complete each other. So why wait for this all-important task when we can do it in little bits each and every day we are blessed to see.

Why do I choose not to give into this elusive neurological disorder? It is because I have learned that it is always better to light one candle than to curse the darkness, nothing is ever achieved by complaining and besides there’s more than enough sorrow in today’s world without adding your personal sorrows. Choose to make the lives we encounter daily better as they each plod on their own path so that even in those moments when the urge to acknowledge the solitude and loneliness comes up, a little smile with each memory of those encounters can make that day less gloomy than is wont to be. It is such an awesome experience when I get to meet new people each day because it presents me the opportunity of setting aside my own travails and first and foremost giving an ear and possibly a shoulder. I have walked through paths that seemed like a cul de sac because of the darkness ahead, only to emerge with the sun on my face. I have lain, unable to get off my bed, my body wracked with unimaginable pain….wishing for just that one person I can call out to. I have watched with painful intrigue as my limbs seek to proclaim their newly found independence courtesy of myoclonus. I have sought to give words to the indescribable turmoil transverse plough my entire body with its unpredictability but through it all I know for a fact that this is just a season and to every season, there is a beginning and an end.

Now I have learned to make each moment count and if we are truly masters of our fate, why not make each day a season of rejoicing and a time to tell just that one person how special he is because truth be told, we may just have that single opportunity to. Hey! It’s like the 25th, that’s just one day – so let us each remember that life comprises of moments and opportunities, be bold enough to grab every moment and make it count. Besides its wiser to deviate from the norm, everyone is waiting for the 25th, why not take your pick of every other day and make that shopping list count. John Ruskin says it thus “conceit my puff a man but never prop him up”. Choose to regale in the beauty of propping others up, regardless of how insignificant that little gesture of thoughtfulness may seem, I can assure you that it could very well be the silver lining in another’s sky. So many battles hard-fought but each victory savoured with deep contentment and gratitude, so many long nights with soul a weary and body aching but each new day replete with opportunities and moments to create and cherish. I know that this day marks the beginning of better things and even as we count down the days to the new year, let us choose to make every day count and realise what an awesome start we will have next year. From me to you, I say “hold him alone truly fortunate who has ended his life in happy wellbeing”

Remember that we are called to stand out, not blend in and that God’s call is higher than any fall. Pick yourself up and stand out!

lמסתדר טוב עד שניפגש שוב בזמן שלו

Adios!