On Saturday I had a revelation.
I keep having these and then some how or the other I forget about them.
A friend of mine called me on Friday night. She said that she knows I am a friend of the KSPCA and there were 2 dogs on Peponi Road - one had been hit and killed by a speeding car, and its partner, never left its side. She said she saw them the day before and had been feeding the one that survived but they needed help and if I could speak to the KSPCA.
I drove past the dogs on Saturday morning and it moved my soul and I was almost in tears when I saw. One dog, lifeless, the other by its side, looking around, refusing to leave its friend despite them both being so close to the road and close to danger.
I had already spoken to the KSPCA and they were on their way.
Again, as I was driving on Saturday through a leafy suburb, I noticed a boy, may be in his twenties, on a wheelchair. He was holding a ball but looking sad, distraught and not all there. There was a man with him, obviously his caretaker. He was sitting - hand on his forehead - looking as though he has lived this day before and was totally bored of it.
I was driving from a baby shower that I planned and was on my way to memorial prayers of my friends father. It had been ten years since his passing. Look at the circle of life - I was literally passing it by on Saturday. From the dogs to this young man in a wheelchair to the celebration of a life to the celebration of a life to come. I am glad it was a long drive back and forth and finally a long, silent drive back home that allowed me to reflect on the day.
We dwell so much on the shit that does not matter that we forget about the things that do matter. How much time do we spend analyzing other peoples lives on facebook or instagram? Ok, may be we do not analyze, but we stalk. We have a look and dare I say it - we judge.
But put yourself in the life of the dog whose friends life was taken away, probably in front of him/her and because of your loyalty you sat by this once full of energy body and tried to understand what was going on. You braved freezing cold nights just in case your friend woke up.
Put yourself in the shoes of a young man in a wheelchair whose parents have been told that your son will never walk again - I am just assuming. Or put yourself in the shoes of his caretaker who lives day in and day out like his life is on repeat.
Put yourself in the shoes of a young girl who lost her dad at the prime of her life. Whose children will never meet the one man who made her who she is today. Who looks back and wonders how the time just flew by. Put yourself in the shoes of a woman who is about to have her fourth baby. The newness of life beats within her and although she has been through it many times before, she is still excited and cannot wait for to hold her brand new bundle of joy.
We are allowing life to pass us by because we are just caught up in looking at how other people live their lives.
What did she wear?
She looks so fat
As if she can even afford that trip to Paris
Yeah, like that is a real designer bag
We all know that the husband is cheating, why are they pretending
She bitched about her last week and now they are taking a selfie!
That quote will show them
Why is she/what is he/ where are they/ how can they
These are all the judgements we make either aloud or in our minds. Then we zoom into the picture and scrutinize - and make more of our sarcastic comments.
The thing is, social media has allowed us to 'show off" our lives in our capacity or even in a make believe capacity. So what?! Why judge, double tap if you like and move on. Don't stop to judge, it does not define the person you are judging, it defines you.
But what is important in life? When it comes down to it - you have to count your blessings more. There is so much negativity swirling about. I feel it more than ever. I get caught up in who said what about me, sometimes I am told that this person does not like you and that person said blah blah fishcakes about you. Dude, I will be honest with you - I swim in the negativity pool from time to time. But I am conscious of this and I get out - dry myself off and dive into the sea of positivity.
Not everyone will agree with you - not everyone will understand you - but not everyone is important. We must consciously move from being negative to positive.
Our vibes affect everyone. So if you are bitching and bad mouthing then the next person will do the same and so forth. It spreads and we all pay the price, we all get caught up in it!
What I am trying to say is this - you are not whollier than thou. You make mistakes. You have haters. You have an ego. You are not perfect so stop pretending to be. Work on yourself. Leave others alone. Focus on you. Better your life. Better your habits. Better your words. Be productive. Be positive. Be grateful.
You must stay true to yourself and value this life - it is a blessing, in every sense of the way. What you have right now, where you are right now is all that matters - the rest is just background noise.
Play with a ball, sit with your friend, tell your father you love him, celebrate life- because you can and get of your phones.
Focus.
X
I keep having these and then some how or the other I forget about them.
A friend of mine called me on Friday night. She said that she knows I am a friend of the KSPCA and there were 2 dogs on Peponi Road - one had been hit and killed by a speeding car, and its partner, never left its side. She said she saw them the day before and had been feeding the one that survived but they needed help and if I could speak to the KSPCA.
I drove past the dogs on Saturday morning and it moved my soul and I was almost in tears when I saw. One dog, lifeless, the other by its side, looking around, refusing to leave its friend despite them both being so close to the road and close to danger.
I had already spoken to the KSPCA and they were on their way.
Again, as I was driving on Saturday through a leafy suburb, I noticed a boy, may be in his twenties, on a wheelchair. He was holding a ball but looking sad, distraught and not all there. There was a man with him, obviously his caretaker. He was sitting - hand on his forehead - looking as though he has lived this day before and was totally bored of it.
I was driving from a baby shower that I planned and was on my way to memorial prayers of my friends father. It had been ten years since his passing. Look at the circle of life - I was literally passing it by on Saturday. From the dogs to this young man in a wheelchair to the celebration of a life to the celebration of a life to come. I am glad it was a long drive back and forth and finally a long, silent drive back home that allowed me to reflect on the day.
We dwell so much on the shit that does not matter that we forget about the things that do matter. How much time do we spend analyzing other peoples lives on facebook or instagram? Ok, may be we do not analyze, but we stalk. We have a look and dare I say it - we judge.
But put yourself in the life of the dog whose friends life was taken away, probably in front of him/her and because of your loyalty you sat by this once full of energy body and tried to understand what was going on. You braved freezing cold nights just in case your friend woke up.
Put yourself in the shoes of a young man in a wheelchair whose parents have been told that your son will never walk again - I am just assuming. Or put yourself in the shoes of his caretaker who lives day in and day out like his life is on repeat.
Put yourself in the shoes of a young girl who lost her dad at the prime of her life. Whose children will never meet the one man who made her who she is today. Who looks back and wonders how the time just flew by. Put yourself in the shoes of a woman who is about to have her fourth baby. The newness of life beats within her and although she has been through it many times before, she is still excited and cannot wait for to hold her brand new bundle of joy.
We are allowing life to pass us by because we are just caught up in looking at how other people live their lives.
What did she wear?
She looks so fat
As if she can even afford that trip to Paris
Yeah, like that is a real designer bag
We all know that the husband is cheating, why are they pretending
She bitched about her last week and now they are taking a selfie!
That quote will show them
Why is she/what is he/ where are they/ how can they
These are all the judgements we make either aloud or in our minds. Then we zoom into the picture and scrutinize - and make more of our sarcastic comments.
The thing is, social media has allowed us to 'show off" our lives in our capacity or even in a make believe capacity. So what?! Why judge, double tap if you like and move on. Don't stop to judge, it does not define the person you are judging, it defines you.
But what is important in life? When it comes down to it - you have to count your blessings more. There is so much negativity swirling about. I feel it more than ever. I get caught up in who said what about me, sometimes I am told that this person does not like you and that person said blah blah fishcakes about you. Dude, I will be honest with you - I swim in the negativity pool from time to time. But I am conscious of this and I get out - dry myself off and dive into the sea of positivity.
Not everyone will agree with you - not everyone will understand you - but not everyone is important. We must consciously move from being negative to positive.
Our vibes affect everyone. So if you are bitching and bad mouthing then the next person will do the same and so forth. It spreads and we all pay the price, we all get caught up in it!
What I am trying to say is this - you are not whollier than thou. You make mistakes. You have haters. You have an ego. You are not perfect so stop pretending to be. Work on yourself. Leave others alone. Focus on you. Better your life. Better your habits. Better your words. Be productive. Be positive. Be grateful.
You must stay true to yourself and value this life - it is a blessing, in every sense of the way. What you have right now, where you are right now is all that matters - the rest is just background noise.
Play with a ball, sit with your friend, tell your father you love him, celebrate life- because you can and get of your phones.
Focus.
X
1 comment:
Humanity has truly lost the meaning of what's important in life. After reading your article, I'm glad that there are those, like yourself, who see where it's all going wrong. People are getting too caught up in insignificant things that they are completely missing the bigger picture. I recently had an eye-opening experience myself, one that led to a whole lot of self evaluation after a whirlwind of emotions. I was walking my girlfriend to her bus stop about two Saturdays ago when we happened upon one of these street kids asking for a bit of change. I was about to ignore her (it was a girl, whom I later got to know was 10 years old) but something about the moment made me wanna change my usual reaction. It was an especially cold Saturday, as is expected around this time of year, and to compound matters it was almost midnight. The image of such a young girl out in the cold borrowing money so late in the night instead of being warm and snug in her bed just didn't seem right. I told her I didn't have any money for her but offered to buy her fries, to which she agreed. As we sat at the fast food joint and I heard her tell her story to my girlfriend, how she's forced to come to town to beg immediately after school, that her mother gives her a daily(nightly) target of KES 300/- which she doesn't always hit, and how she gets back home (mathare) after midnight and barely gets enough sleep (always on an empty stomach) which forces her to doze off daily in class...while listening to all this I could barely restrain the teardrops from falling. Such a sweet young girl having to go through a life like that for no reason whatsoever but as a consequence of our collective(myself included) ignorance. Anyway, we finished up, escorted my girlfriend to catch her bus then I walked the little girl to where her mom was stationed (also begging for cash). I had a little chat with the mom and that was that. It was a very profound experience for me, one that's forced me to rethink everything I know about life. All year long I've been in the process of laying the foundation for my startup (launching in the coming year) and I've made the decision that I will no longer be focused on profits but rather social impact. I realized that I shouldn't be confined to one good deed once in a blue moon. That is what life ought to be about, not dazzling at the fake images and fake lives of people we'll never truly know that flood our screens and media. To make a long comment longer :D, we all need to realize that there so much we can do, and that we can all take part in changing this mad mad world and system. It's not up to anyone else but you and I.
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