Through the Fire

In the flux

The mind is a massive industrial complex of churn, with thoughts and imaginations coursing through spaghetti conveyor belts manufacturing products for which one might not have found a purpose. A recent situation had so many scenarios play out in my head, I felt like I needed a big red button to shut down the complex and get some quiet in me.

In the midst of all this, there was a voice, quiet and calming, asking for a voice to speak to my hearing. It is a place of refuge that in troubled times comes to the rescue to snatch me out of the funk, putting things in perspective and offering a kind of assurance that whatever might come will pass.

In the calm

In life, we are not promised a trouble-free existence, rather there are influences and experiences that seem to equip us to weather storms to new calms. It is like the Psalmist says in Psalm 23, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” [BibleGateway: Psalm 23:4]

I am comforted by that voice that says in my head, even in the face of terrifying circumstances, “Akin, everything is going to be fine.” It gives me a sense of security for travel and the assurance that I will reach my destination. Whatever the journey, it will not be the end of the story.

Thought Picnic: My foolishness in floodlights

Being plainly human

We are as humans most capable of stupidity and carelessness in the selfish pursuit of pleasures and desires. Indulging in such might bring personal satisfaction but it can adversely affect others, by distress or upset, we risk doing much harm to those closest to us.

Essentially, the frustrations are alarm bells of other unexplained turmoil for which desperation can present bad options and rotten choices. The path out requires a completely new mindset with a direction to achievable goals. Talk about it and seek help too.

There can be consequences for making the wrong choices out of impatience and or being inconsiderate. You then hope that it does not end in regret, with much remorse, you plead hoping to mend your ways. It begins with saying, I am sorry and working to rebuild trust and confidence from the fundamentals. A chance offered to write a better story.

In the shadow of Table Mountain

Anyone out there?

In the shelter of the Table Mountain, there is a stillness and eerie silence that greets my ears, the cacophony hours ago, at street level, some two floors below has given way to snatches of sounds travelling distances unknown, probably of someone singing to themselves.

The insomnia phase I am in has been brought on by the slumber that caught me away on the couch soon after a sumptuous Christmas dinner. The many nights of unsleep caught up in an afternoon, an evening and a night of sometimes absented wakefulness that only my tracker can plot into any perceptible coherence.

Looking out of my window, it is only a quarter past one, and at the junction are two public safety personnel in their green and yellow uniforms, that it matters is strange because a major police station is hardly 6 blocks down, where another of the personnel appears to be walking up the street.

Someone out there

You might even hear a baby cry or a car drive past, we are supposed to be under a curfew, whoever it is must be on some essential or emergency activity. It is quite peaceful on occasion to just switch off even primary and local sources of sound and listen, though it would be nigh on impossible for me to sleep without the radio on.

Someone then punctures the quietude with the hoot of the car horn, you can only wonder why if the roads are free amongst the many other reasons I should not exercise myself about. I look out again, I am in both a modern city with all streetlights working and a place of inequalities, a man without the comforts I enjoy sits on the pavement pondering a homeless world.

Christmas eve even event

Closing close

The day was easy, nothing planned just a few things to do, only to find that many shops had already closed early for the day, Christmas Eve being a bit more special this time. We cannot have a midnight service because of a curfew due to the pandemic, so, it will be happening in the evening, though we are not attending.

One food shop will be closed until the 5^th of January, I guess they decided to have a holiday. By the time we visited the main supermarkets in town, they had closed, and it was only 5 o’clock. There was no other choice but to go to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront where the shops at least stayed open another couple of hours.

Knowing nose

On my unaided and slow walk there, I met my 10,000-step quota and found some inspiration I hope would be pleasant. Windbreakers or breakers of the wind give scent to the air, and with that, we at least know we have not lost our sense of smell if we are not regaling with the wafting glories of flowers or culinary expertise.

We might just make Christmas a wonderful time, we did not get all we wanted but what we got will suffice with a bit of improvisation and the proficiency of some kitchen literacy. Have yourselves a very merry Christmas and we look towards better ones ahead.

A rather surly place owner

Shit hot shit people

There are people quite talented in what they do and that is all they have to show. In business, they probably employ staff who are marshalled into a unit to perform with excellence on the force of the personality of one.

I walked into a restaurant this afternoon and saw one such boss, for she was not a leader, the banter between her and two of her staff was like an offcut of a Nollywood film, laden with abuse and invective, the staff progressively belittled that if it were a shrinking game, they would have been the size of ants in the space of a minute.

Suffering smiling staff

When I was noticed, I tried to put in an order and when it did not seem to be a big one, she became surly and truculent at the point of doing the same thing she did with her staff. That she then stopped addressing me directly even though she could face me, and she delivered her diatribe and belittlement through another of her staff.

All this because we were putting an order in for food even though we had bought foodstuff there the day before and had the pleasure of being served by friendlier staff. Rather than run the gauntlet of the nasty woman tomorrow, I went back this evening, thankfully long after she had left for the day and again found beautiful and helpful people to fulfil my order.

The staff saved that place of a nasty review, of the boss, no words, but the staff will perform better if they were treated better, with courtesy, respect, and dignity.

The Wizard of Bulawayo

In the flux of thought

Sometimes, someone thinks I am crazy, thoughts and words, the conversation develops from topic to topic exploring ideas and possibilities, I find myself in a stream of inspiration, a muse to arouse, a hint to follow, a leading you cannot resist the temptation to follow, rarely to an end but on the way to something interesting.

I did miss the sighting of the Star of Bethlehem last night, I saw another star that I persuaded some could be what none had seen before and it just happened to be big and brilliant, high up on a resplendently lit Christmas tree, that one lady what wonder what I had been smoking. I probably stopped smoking before she was born.

However, what I have finally realised is there is literally nothing Brian cannot do, that somewhere from the recesses of thought and exclamation, the only fitting appellation that springs sonorously to the lips is the Wizard of Bulawayo.

Are the 3 kings saddling their camels?

The drains drain

The many times I have visited South Africa, and this is in the southern hemisphere with all the times I have watched the moving maps of crossing the equator, I have never actively or purposefully observed the phenomenon called Coriolis force or the broader Coriolis effect.

I will not pretend to explain them in detail, but the direction of motion of how water goes down a drain in a clockwise or anti-clockwise way depending on whether you are in the northern or southern hemisphere. Yet, it would be interesting to observe, an experiment with dyed water, pulling out the plug and taking a video recording. Then, Snopes snuffs my interest out dismissing it as a myth. [Snopes: Coriolis Force Effect on Drains]

What a day to long for

One other thing I have not taken into consideration too is that the 21^st of December is the Winter solstice in the northern hemisphere wherein they will have the shortest day and it is the Summer solstice in the southern hemisphere where we would presumably have the longest day. This is my second birthday in the southern hemisphere and my third Christmas here, but let’s not baffle ourselves with the how’s and why’s.

The radio had been going on about this aspect of the length of days that I decided to check on my weather app. As I write this, the sun is yet to rise in Manchester at 08:23 hours and will set at 15:52 hours for a daylight length of 7 hours and 29 minutes, we are two hours ahead in Cape Town.

Here in Cape Town, the sun rose at 05:32 hours and will set at 19:57 hours, giving us a daylight length of 14 hours and 25 minutes, 6 hours and 56 minutes longer than in Manchester where it is a calm 4⁰ Celsius and comparatively already 24⁰ Celsius here.

Presents for me

Another natural phenomenon of celestial consequence we will experience today is the Christmas Star of Bethlehem, where the planets of Saturn and Jupiter will align in the sky after sunset and will be observable from South African skies, this last happened almost 800 years ago. What a time to be in. [The Witness: Don't forget to look out for the 'Christmas Star of Bethlehem' on Monday]

To fill up this blog I could add names the names of people who were born on the 21^st of December, but that would be a veritable list of heroes and villains, there is enough to celebrate in the day and make the most of it in natural and celestial significance and observations, and that is just wonderful too.