Ignorance is not bliss - you don't know what you're missing!

There is a very cliché statement that goes "You never know what you've got until you lose it."

I beg to differ totally! Who doesn't know when they have money? I for one definitely know when I have money. All of a sudden, I appear slightly taller than I usually am, and manage to look very elegant in my signature faded jeans. My nails suddenly need 'doing' and my handbags are too few. My shoes don't suit my wardrobe anymore so of course I have to get a new pair...(girls, did I hear an amen?).

But today it rained and I thought, forget about 'ignorance is bliss'. Sometimes, you don't know what you are missing until you get it (or get it back)!

I seriously did not realise how much I had missed the rain until I heard the distant pattering in my sleep just before I got up. I didn't realise how much I enjoyed the accompanying cool crisp early morning air which hit me as I stumbled out of bed, half dressed, trying to remember why it is that I have to get out of bed before 11 am today. And when I walked to the bus stop, jumping over mud puddles and dodging splashing motorists, I realised that I had sort of missed the way the ground becomes chocolatey and squishy when it rains. The labouring 25 minute walk to the office didn't seem so labouring this morning because the sun was not beating down on me today. I was actually lifting my feet off the ground today!

Ah, yes...sometimes, you do not know what you are missing until you get it (or you get it back). So today, when the rain starts falling at exactly the hour when I have to leave work for home, and when I have to stand at the bus stop for hours wondering where it is the public transport vehicles get to when it rains, don't you worry about me. I will be singing in the rain!

Donno about you, I'm Saving the World!

It was with utter horror that I watched events unfolding over the past few weeks. All our forests in Kenya, or at least what is left of them are burning! Honestly, I was transfixed. Then I got angry, angry to the point of wanting to do something. We have to put a stop to this madness! The selfish desires of a few individuals are threatening the very existence of a whole nation and we .... well, we are our usual passive selves. We might have a few heated debates while the news is still hot but those will die off soon enough when we stop seeing the horrific pictures. We will complain every now and then when our taps run dry. The more valiant of us will write letters of protest to some government department or other that we feel is responsible. And then what?

There is nothing as paralyzing as being faced with a crisis of such magnitude, knowing you have to do something, yet not having the foggiest idea what you ought to do. So when my friend 'A' said she would do what she knows best how to do – walk, I took her very seriously. She may have the answer after all! If we all just do our bit we may save our forests yet.

So "you go girl, 'A'!" I'm rooting for you. Well, actually, I am writing for you! As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what I’ll do, I am going to write and tell you all about ‘A’ as she walks for the forests and you are all going to contribute in your own little ways. There! Problem solved!

Symbiosis versus parasitism

Yesterday I was feeling weighed down by some stuff that has been on my mind for quite some time. A very dear friend of mine offered to take me out for coffee and try and cheer me up a little, but considering this would be the second time in as many weeks, my first instinct was to decline...I mean, who wants to be seen as 'that' sort of friend – the one who is always down in the dumps and needs lifting up?

Anyway, somehow the coffee did happen and as a matter of fact, it turned out not to be a 'tissues and hankies' affair but a very interesting current affairs discussion.

This reminds me of a very curious bougainvillea plant I once saw. Generally, the bougainvillea is a low growing, creeping bush. It is often grown as a fence or along walls which only reach up to about 3 metres high. However this particular bougainvillea plant had found a 30 feet tree and attached itself to it. As a result, it was towering way above all the others and I could see its beautiful flowers from a great distance off. I am very sure it was enjoying the plentiful sunshine and the fresh air way up there. In return, the otherwise common looking tree was transformed into a beautiful, flower covered tree.

Like the bougainvillea, I realised, it is necessary to benefit from my friend's strengths. No one person has it all together within themselves. While giving help to my friend when she needs it and accepting hers in return, I am actually forming a symbiotic alliance, sort of like the bougainvillea and the tree. As to who is the bougainvillea and who is the tree..... that is a story for another day!

Now what?

It is now 4 days since I started this blog and I am beginning to have the feeling you get when you are presented with an 'artistic masterpiece' by a 2 year old. You hold it out, turn it upside down, downside up, rightside left, leftside right, all the while nodding with profuse enthusiasm and exclaiming how beautiful the work of art is. Then, after having waited for a respectable amount of time, you return to the 2 year old and ask, "Er, sweetheart, what is this you drew, again?"

So, now I have a blog. Hurrah! Cartwheels! Loud clapping!

...Err..So what am I supposed to do with it again?

Riding the blogging wave

About 2 years ago when my friend "L" first started blogging, my sister and I teased her about it, telling her how blogging was a release for the tormented soul who had something to say, and nobody to say it to. Never in a million years did I ever see myself riding the 'blogging wave'. After all, I have an old fashioned journal in which I make intermittent entries, by hand, mostly about stuff that my brain needs time to process and that is really more than enough, right?....Wrong!

Today I was interviewed for a job I would happily die for and guess which one question utterly dumbfounded me....Yep, you guessed right "Do you have a blog".

DO I HAVE A BLOG? What do they mean do I have a blog?! Why would I have a blog? Blogs, as I said earlier are an outlet for the tormented soul with nobody to talk to. You write and write and write away, and perhaps somewhere amongst your rumblings, you will find answers to the "deeper meaning of life".

Well, perhaps that IS the point, you write and write and write... then you write some more. And since the job I am willing to kill for (or was it die for? I forget) requires that I write, here I am with my tail between my legs (dont laugh at me "L") riding the blogging wave!