From 2019 into 2020

Giving thanks

As we bid 2019 goodbye passing into the annals of the eternal past, I have much to be grateful for, being alive and celebrating 10 years after a full-blown AIDS and cancer diagnosis in September. I count myself blessed and fortunate to be in few who after my kind of diagnosis continues to thrive.

I was in Cape Town at the time, and I had great cause to give thanks in church for reaching that landmark decade.

As we took on the new year, I fell in love and though there was quite a distance between us, we found a way to make each moment matter, that in the course of this year, I have been back to South Africa in February, April, September and now December. I look forward to making my relationship with Brian the most significant and most relevant I have ever had; we hope for exciting things in 2020.

Focused south

On the work front, despite the promise of much activity, things were a bit slow, I probably only found engagement for about six months of the year. The fallow periods affording me the opportunities for quality romantic time.

For someone who happens to travel a lot, my compass has only pointed to the southern tip of Africa all year. It is my desire to visit the Netherlands to thank the consultants who handled my health crisis with such professionalism and empathy, it should happen soon. Other European cities as Berlin, Paris and Barcelona need a reacquaintance, much as Scandinavia remains undiscovered apart from Sweden.

Family keynotes

In October, we celebrated the 80^th birthday of our patriarch, my siblings did a sterling job of honouring him and making him proud, it was celebrated in the manner and style he wanted and we are thankful for his long life and rude health. The matriarch clocked 77^th though there were times when I offered to swear an affidavit on her behalf if out of envy, she wanted her 80^th early.

Other things that I got to do were to begin learning to play the piano, it is something I need to put more effort into. With a sudden furlough in mid-November, I took project management and enterprise architecture classes and went on to pass the certifications for both, all within a month.

Good year

2019 could easily have been a year of little, yet, counting my blessings, it was a year of great, exiting, magnificent and wonderful things. There was a supply for where there appeared to be little, I believe 2020 is a harbinger of greater things to come.

Generally, whilst it is unfortunate that the Brexit juggernaut is in full throttle, the world will not end, we will do well despite the odds. For all the dislike one might have for Boris Johnson, his success as Prime Minister would be for the good of all. How he intends to unite our nation with acts, activities, policy, and purpose, I am yet to see, beyond rhetoric, platitudes and verbiage.

Arise 2020

For love, we live; for happiness we strive; for blessing, we pray; for success, we desire; for great stories to tell, we yearn; and for truth and justice we fight.

May 2020 be the new beginning for things we could never have imagined possible, exceeding the realisation of our wildest dreams. I look to have Brian by my side through it all. Thank you for being here, being there and being where life begins to have new meaning.

Thought Picnic: Thoughts of Thankfulness

A loneness and togetherness

There are times I have been threatened with the idea that I am alone and lonely in the things that I have seen and experienced.

Of a truth, in the realms that we majorly interact in, there are many that have suffered the privations and loneliness that I have encountered but few who can say they have through it all been blessed, small or large when things did not look like they could get any better.

Thankful always

For all the stories I can muster the strength to tell, the greatest is of thankfulness for the mercies I have received, the friendships that have come to the rescue when things were so dire and the life that has survived and thrived against all odds.

Gloomy as some days seem, there is a resilience I cannot explain and an assuredness that trumps all circumstances that says all that is contrary will pass and that which is of goodness will come.

Suddenly, great respite

God knows, there are things that I would rather have suddenly and come up with certainty but time is an elastic variable, when it is due, it will not shift, not for a second.

For those who have little and out of that have given much your brotherly love is greatly appreciated, I am grateful beyond words can express.

Thank you for reaching out and lifting me up.

The job just comes

Fortunate and grateful

In my career life, I have been so fortunate. In the last 12 years, I have hardly had a job where I have had to do all the footwork, rather, there has always been someone, some company, some contract in which I have worked that has lead to another opportunity somewhere else.

I realise, I am never so aggressive about looking for work even though in some cases one should be concerned about knowing when the next bank bloat would be.

But then, I learnt the most important lesson about work just when I went freelance contracting that each day you are appearing at work, you are writing your reference and laying out the paths to success or destruction of your career.

The evil men do

Two CVs came in prospecting for work from people who had worked in that company a few years before. The department manager was new and knew nothing about them so he sounded round other staff about these people.

The report was so bad, I cringed, one had spent all his time running another business rather than doing his work, the other was considered lazy and lackadaisical have done some unmentioned damage to the systems in their tenure.

Basically, this report made them unemployable, since the IT world is fluid, the dispersal of people means that this message would propagate eventual to other opportunities, to redeem themselves they have to be aware of this situation and begin to rebuild their reputations anew – what is almost impossible is rebuilding that with old contacts.

Certification is just the beginning

The lesson reinforced my views about character and professionalism at work, most especially when you are on a short-term contracts, my next job came about through two avenues; a contract that barely lasted 5 weeks and an agency I have worked for since the beginning of the year, it would probably lead on to other things.

I remember when there was a rush by people to attain vendor certifications to move from postal clerk jobs of £7.00/hour to the entry-level £20.00/hour contract jobs in IT Support. Many saw the MCSE and CNE as ends rather than means of developing new careers.

The contracts usually only lasted no more than 3 months before they moved on, having left jobs as fumblers, problem creators and unprofessionally aggressive people with eyes for the money only. By the time they had the first pay packet, they were in the car showroom looking for a show-off Lexus automobile.

I would want to believe that that generation of sorry and hapless contractors have either been eliminated from the market or they have learnt to make better use of their acquired certification to improve their knowledge and usefulness to industry.

Giving thanks

In the end, I believe my life is encompassed with favour and grace rather than sheer luck and good fortune, though in a secular world they all seem to matter.

What better thing could I have done with all these wonderful happenings than to go to church and give thanks for all the blessings that pour into my life everyday.