The beginning of the rest of your life

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A thousand-mile journey, Blogging, Learning, Life, Mentoring, Pharmacy, Uganda, Work

There is a certain TV broadcast that always starts with a preacher’s voice booming out, “Today is the beginning of the rest of your life.” This line always catches my attention, not only because the preacher’s voice rings out so loud, but also because it is so true. It makes me stop and think about the rest of my life. There are benefits to taking one day at a time, yes, but assuming I’m going to live very long, am I living today like it’s the beginning of the rest of my very long life? What am I doing today to make sure the rest of my life is as I would like it to turn out. How much importance do I attach to today as the day that starts the rest of my life?

Waking up this morning, I didn’t think anything out of the ordinary would come of today. I had supposed I would get my scheduled work done, and that would be it. But sometimes, the most ordinary of days may turn out to be relatively special.

Today I travelled again to the clinical trial site with an external monitor hired to audit our vaccine accountability. I’m pharmacist on a multidisciplinary team conducting this really interesting clinical trial which we hope will break ground in malaria therapy, and immensely reduce infant and maternal deaths worldwide. The journey to the clinical trial site is roughly a 3 hours ride, which is ample time to either be driven nuts by your travel companion or strike an interesting conversation that may open doors of opportunity. Lucky for me, it was the latter.

What I know

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age just a number, courage, emotional blackmail, hunger, Life, Money, Musings, presidency, Thoughts, world poverty, World travel

There are a few things I know.

1. I don’t want to die young.
2. I want to see the world. Preferably not by myself. When I’m old and grey and reliving my memories, a digital picture won’t speak back to me or relish them with me.

The 20′s

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Age, apprenticeship, Life, twenty

“Your twenties are always an apprenticeship, but you don’t always know what for.”

- Jan Houtema

I think I may have a pretty good idea in my case, but then again I could be wrong. With life, you just never know.

On Reason & Passion

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God, Life, Love, Passion, Poetry, Reason, Relationships

On Reason and Passion  Kahlil Gibran Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage …

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On Joy & Sorrow

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Happiness, Joy, Life, Sorrow

On Joy and Sorrow
 Kahlil Gibran

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, “Joy is greater thar sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Kamilah, Kahlil’s mother. Painting by Kahlil Gibran

Murmuration

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Beautiful, Calm, Creation, God, Life, Love, Murmuration, Nature, Starlings, therapeutic, tranquil

Murmuration  = a flock of starlings.

Here’s why they are so special.

 

I got this video from Castorgirl at http://www.scatteredpieces.org, a blog I found at Alice’s http://whatshappenedtoalice.blogspot.com whom I discovered at http://wordsfallfrommyeyes.wordpress.com. Lot’s of finding, right? Welcome to the Blogosphere.

Well, I thought I’d share. One simply can’t keep something like this to oneself. It’s just so beautiful, nature is. It’s beautiful, it’s calming, it renders me speechless sometimes. I want to watch this video over and over again, and just sit and gaze and get lost in the starlings’ magic.

Enjoy,

Wandering Wonderer

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Dancing, Humour, Life, Mornings, Musings, Thinking, Thoughts

I haven’t written in a long time. A week only, yes, but for me that’s unreasonably long. Usually, I may go a day or two without writing and then, some days, I will find myself posting two, three new posts at once. I have concluded it must have something to do with how my mind wanders from tree top to tree top, making occasional stops in valleys and along slopes.

I’ve been under some duress that somehow inhibited the usual flow of words from my brain through to my finger tips and finally onto my pages, here. When that happens I usually find myself with several drafts, half-stories, that end up staying in the drafts folder until my spirits are up again, high enough to feel up to some interaction. And even then, my mind still wanders. And wonders. And wanders.

Take for example, this morning as I prepared for my morning shower, some excerpts.

There wasn’t much hot water in there last night, I better switch on that heater. In the meantime I’ll brush my teeth.Wait, why don’t I first do my facial wash routine? As I brush, the facial wash will be doing it’s magic then I can wash it off later. Yeah, of course, as usual.

I’ve got to go to the drug authority today, then call those pharmacy managers, then… what else?

You know, what if there’s a power cut later today, perhaps I should leave the heater on a little longer, that way there will be enough hot water even after I shower. I should get back to my blog, have lots to write about. I should take the laptop out and power it, such that when I’m done here it’ll be good and ready and off we shall go writing. 

I finish brushing, put up my toothbrush and walk out of the bathroom, head to the bedroom to pick the said laptop. Inside, a song is playing on the radio. Reggae tone, dance-hall beats. These guys are wailing about the cunning of today’s city girl. Tough love, it’s a tough city. Everyone’s scheming. What, you couldn’t beat them so you joined them? Great move, Mr. Musician. Enter yours truly.

Wooh! I really love this song!

I start dancing.

Their song doesn’t have much lyrical value but I have to agree that the storyline is quite funny. I just love these beats! My God, I haven’t really danced in a long time. Not even at Grace’s party. Still mad about that, I threw that do, THAT was my big chance to dance like crazy! Well, there is always next time. There is also NOW.