Truth

Truth

Naked, Factual

Speaking, revealing, boldly

Always sets you free

Candor

Dawn Music

I stirred to these today…

Beep beep beep. The alarm.

Whoo whoo whoo. The whirring fan.

Tick tock, tick tock. The clock.

Vroooom. A lone car.

Kokrooko (Cock-a-doodle-doo, if you will). A rooster.

Tweet tweet, tweet tweet. An early bird.

Swish swish swish. The neighbours broom.

Kokrooko. A(nother?) rooster.

Tweet tweet tweet. More early birds?

…beautiful dawn music!

Ghana’s ‘concrete jungle’

5:45am. Still dark and foggy. But I’m at the steer sipping on a cupa and feeling damned sleepy. A very long day lies awaiting. Not that it’s different from any other. I just feel like I should have been born in a little remote village where I didn’t have to be driving around in the wee hours of the morning. I ask myself if all the money in the world is worth the chase… No answer. Not that I was expecting any. Light turns red, I stop. I look to my left, a yawning man in his car. I look to my right, there is a trotro* full of still passengers. The driver yawns, I look at the passengers closely. They are all fast asleep. Every. Single One. Of. Them. Even the early morning hawkers look groggy and disheveled. Is this the dream life they bargained for when they left their towns and villages? Will they make it? Is this really a city where there’s nothing you can’t do? Er…

This concrete jungle post is inspired by Alicia Keyes’ new song (or new version) – Empire State of Mind, which I am sooooooo loving!
Trotro*- mini bus for public transport.

Black and white are also colours of the rainbow!

The last meeting

Was a teary parting two decades ago

The joys leaving school called

The promises of tomorrow beckoned

Each went to their own

To make bread with the grain given

Today she bumps into her in town

Her life seems like a rainbow

Complete with that pot of gold

A thriving business for her work

A wealthy hunk for her husband

A life in HD

She, not so much, she muses

She hasn’t had much colour

Single mother, runaway dad

Struggling to make ends meet

It seems she’s been given a raw deal

A life in black and white

They are pretend they’re happy to see each other

They secretly eye each other enviously

Each wants what the other has

A son for one, a husband for the other

Oh, but they have a lot more in common

They both cry themselves each night to sleep

Resilience

I was with my mother as she was gardening the other day. As she dug up clumps of earth with her fork she complained, “I wish these tomatoes were as resilient as the weeds are. You don’t have to put any insecticides or manure and they grow outrageously. My tomatoes are getting blight. Yet they all grow in the same soil.”

Later on I thought to myself, we humans are like that. The rogues and rascals thrive, while good people are ruined. A setback, a harsh word or an illness and we succumb. We dig in our heels; we give up and claim we are victims. If the rogues were to be deterred by the harsh words they have heard or even some of the unpleasant consequences they have had, this world would be a utopia. Yet they forge on against all odds.

We should learn from them. But of what use is a weed or scoundrel to anyone? Maybe a hybrid would work. We need to have the usefulness of a tomato and the resilience of a weed.

Education

Study

Read

Write

Calculate

Sit

Silence

They barked at me

So I did them dutifully

Maybe if they had added

Explore

Create

Muse

Invent

Discover

Play

I’d have done ‘em with glee

And I’d have learnt more

‘Cause I’d have thought for myself

Learning on the job

Why is there no manual?

No set of instructions

To this life we lead

This love we share

So many mistakes, saved

So much heartache spared

TVs and Microwaves have ‘em

Even tables and lights fixtures

So why not something as large as life

Or as beautiful as love?

7 (maybe sad) facts of life

Chocolate and ice cream will make you fat.
Pizza is not a balanced diet (the vegetables on there don’t count).
Vodka and whiskey can make you sing off-tune.
You can never look like Halle Berry or Tyson Beckford.
Fancying someone doesn’t always mean they will fancy you back.
Not fancying someone doesn’t always mean they will stop fancying you.
Sex cannot be categorized as exercise.