VIOLENCE: NOT AN OPTION

The wise learn from the experiences of others. For every positive or negative choice made , there will always be a positive or negative consequence or result respectively. When we start living through horrific and challenging experiences as a result of our wrong choices, we find ourselves wishing that we could reverse the hands of time; if only we could go back and make a different choice. What power do we have over the past? Our choices will always order the course we take.

As a country we have made wrong choices in the past and we have had to live through hard and painful moments as a result of that. What power do we have over that? We are about five months away from election month; politicians are campaigning, and things are getting hotter as we near the month of August. The choices we make; the leaders we elect; how we will react or respond during and after elections, will determine our future and the consequences we shall face thereafter. The 2007-2008 post-election violence resulted to deaths, injuries, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), destruction of properties, and the intervention of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which affected  our relationships domestically and internationally. As if that was not enough, our tourism sector experienced a great downfall as we were dubbed a ‘hotbed of terror’. Violence increases the dependency rate of a nation within, and when there’s no more hope for the country to deliver itself, it becomes dependent on the international community; resulting to citizens becoming refugees in other states.

We may differ in opinion, thought and will but these are not reasons enough to consider violence as a way out. Violence has no timeline; once it begins no one knows its end. I have never heard of a people/parties in conflict signing a contract to fight and destroy each other from period A to period B and afterwards they can call off the war. Most agreements made in relation to violence/war, are done after the children have been made orphans, properties have been destroyed, and in some cases there’s probably nothing (in terms of resources) left worth fighting for. Although we have too much on our plate: corruption, doctor’s and lecturer’s ongoing strikes, insecurity (Al shabaab), drug abuse among the youth, and drought among other challenges, as a country we have much more worth protecting.

Proverbs 20:29 (KJV) states “The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head”. Experience qualifies the old to counsel and share wisdom. I would therefore plead with our dear grandfathers, grandmothers, fathers, and mothers, to give advice that will not stir up strife and hatred among the children (mostly the youth), but let your words of wisdom promote peace and unity. To my brothers and sisters, let us come together as the strength and inheritance of this great nation, to build and not destroy. Let’s utilize our abilities; our strength in the right places. I see great potential in the streets during demonstrations, when the young men run, throw stones or fold their fists to fight. These activities show potential that can be developed and utilized in sports, and we could have yet another David Rudisha, Julius Yego or even the next Muhammad Ali in the boxing ring respectively. Let’s use our strength to develop ourselves; becoming more innovative, offering ourselves to learn and gain knowledge and developing our talents and gifts.

We can’t afford violence, it would be too expensive for us. Violence is not our last option, it is just not an option. Let’s all make the choice to promote peace, love and unity. I’ll leave you with the wise words of these Wahenga guys: ” yaliyopita si ndwele, tugange yajayo”.

God bless Kenya.

Micere Miano

P.S: Art by  Evans Yegon   Instagram: @yegonizer

FAIL FAST

So, in high school in the physics class (a subject I didn’t like much btw), we were told how Thomas Edison failed 1,000 (like ONE THOUSAND) times before the light bulb innovation he was working on practically worked. His reply when asked by a journalist how it felt to fail 1000 times, he replied “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

Michael Jordan, has his own side of the story as he once stated ” I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots. I’ve lost over 300 games, 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that’s why I succeed.”

According to me, in life failure seems to be inevitable but it’s the attitude we have towards it that really matters. I’m sure the gentlemen mentioned above must have had the kind of attitude of ‘this thing can work, if not like this then like this.’ Show me a man who has never failed in one particular thing and I’ll be the first to tell them that they have been living a lie. We are human bound to try things and fail, reason being we somehow just can’t figure things out at a go hence the need to keep trying. From the failure stories, success stories told from individuals that the universe so much admires, they’ve failed so many times than most of us have and yet never had room for giving up or having a pity party; and it seems like the faster they did (the more it happened), the closer they approached their breakthrough. I tend to imagine if Thomas Edison had failed at the 5th ‘step’ (like I would have probably done) then how difficult would it have been to dress up or read at 5:00 am or even late at night now that we know how important the bulbs are; the light bulbs literally paved the way for modern life.

See, it’s okay to fail, to feel bad and maybe really miserable about it but it’s definitely not okay to give up, to consider yourself a failure because all your doing is taking steps towards your breakthrough. You just can’t get THERE like NOW, HERE and TODAY…to get to our purposed destinations it’s gonna take time and trust you me it might take longer than we probably expected. We need to learn how to be patient with ourselves, make the most of the time and have a teachable spirit; learn from our failures. We never learn from what was easy for us to do and ended up succeeding at it ; we learn from our mistakes and failures. So it would be important to remember that some of the lessons we learn in life are at times disguised as failure. The faster we do that, the wiser we become, and the closer we approach our breakthrough. In every step (failure) we are given an opportunity to start again and/or  do things differently, this time in a more intelligent way.

So, don’t be afraid of failure, and when you are busy failing don’t forget that it’s always a lesson and I would urge you to be fast about it because you are just but lessons and steps away to your breakthrough.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quote from Thomas Watson Sr who said ” The fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate.”

((Hugs))

Micere Miano

 

STOP WASTING OUR TIME- WE NEED YOU!

We are all wired differently although we belong to the same God. We are different because our destinies are different; our purpose in life for each and every one of us is different; we are meant to fulfill different agendas. We are equal but different.

So someone please tell me why we want to be like others? Why we want to look like them? If you were really given that other person’s purpose/ agenda would you really hack it? When the d-day comes and we are to give an account to the Master, what will you really say? Will you stand in His presence trembling in fear knowing that you spent most of your lifetime stalking other people’s lives and wishing you had what they have hence you forgot to live your own?

Don’t get me wrong it’s okay to admire the good that others have, but in the days we living in today we find ourselves spending our days checking out and coveting other people’s lifestyles, and that is where we go wrong.  Here’s the thing, since we are all destined to fulfill different agendas, what was placed in us therefore differs. You are the only one under the sun existing with something that the rest of us don’t have. We are gifted differently that we may be each others strength and not in competition with each other.

So how about you start focusing on YOU because you are unique.Work on yourself, be yourself, appreciate yourself, have a learning/teachable spirit, develop yourself and be content. Tonight, at midnight you shall receive a beautiful gift called “A NEW DAY” a set of 24 hours, (God willing); you can refocus and start a fresh. Treasure every set of 24 hours you get, for time waits for no man.

That which you were created to become, you need to know that it ain’t just for you but is for the rest of us as well. So dear one stop wasting our time by focusing on your past and stalking other people’s lives, because the world is waiting for you, to offer that which it doesn’t have because apparently it was only placed in YOU!

((Hugs))

Micere Miano

IMPORTANT NEIGHBOUR

It was ever a full house when I was growing up. From a family of nine children, we always had some one or two extra relative that lived with us and just having people around was a great feeling, UNTIL it was your turn to prepare the meal for the day. Thank God there was no garden of vegetables at the back of the house (what we had was a garden of flowers), because I couldn’t imagine having to chop the kale that would be an accompaniment of the famous Kenyan dish ‘ugali’ with meat. During that time ‘mama mboga’ always came in handy. Worthy to be considered as that important neighbor.

The important neighbor here is not the person that lives next door. The person that we often visit on a Saturday afternoon to catch up on the latest happenings in the community, or the one we tend to borrow a match stick when we get home from work and realize that our match box is empty…it’s that person that makes our living much easier in ways that we consider small yet so significant.

‘Mama mboga’ who sells her veggies right next to our estates, makes our cooking process easier; and for some bachelors ‘mama mboga’ prepares their meals as she’s still ‘mama chapo’ and ‘mama ndengu’. ‘Mama wa nguo’ who comes over once every one or two weeks to do our laundry when our laundry baskets are overwhelmed and at times she ends up cleaning the entire house. Of course I also wouldn’t forget to mention our brothers and sisters who clean our streets hence make our movement in the CBD much easier, as we don’t have to walk around jumping and hoping at the sight of litter or misplaced stones, and those that care for Kidero’s grass are the first to give us hope that it shall grow (and it actually did).  Not forgetting our watchmen that stay up at night in the cold while we comfortably sleep in our warm beds.

Although we do pay them for what they do; and yes we at the end of the day create employment for them, but imagine if you had to be your own ‘mama mboga’ ‘mama wa nguo’ or your own watchman, how harder life would be because you’d still have to meet deadlines at work, care for your children and find the time to care for yourself.

For every other ‘important neighbor’ in the community, let’s appreciate their efforts, and although we tend to despise them for what they do, they are pretty much our important neighbors.

((Hugs))

Micere Miano