Sometimes the journey we make in life turns out better than we expect. That even in the moments of despair the spirit rises above the challenge and the head fights to remain above water. For when we think we’re down and out we are indeed in Churchill’s words at “the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning.”
I remember texting my friend Jai, one night in December last year and telling him I just wanted to end it all. He said said he believed in climbing each mountain no matter how many mountains there were to climb.
The thing about mountains is that once you’ve climbed them you’ve reached the top of the world. And so as I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I decided to climb the mountain each day. I decided to keep my head above water.
Jai called me on the 25th of December and we had a great chat. It was the best Christmas present I ever got. Why because it calmed my restless soul.
One of the lessons that life teaches through experience is that the suffering that fellow human beings go through is actually avoidable and can be remedied.
But remedies must not be imposed or prescribed by external parties. Remedies should be highlighted by the oppressed and facilitated by parties willing to assist. In my own little way I understand what disempowerment and disenfranchisement feel like.
I also understand the value of prayer – no not the Capitalist version where you pray for wives, lovers, money and jobs, etc... True faith and prayer is when a friend thousands of miles away sends an sms and tells you, “boy, just hang in there. Tomorrow the sun will rise.” Your friend truly believes that one sms will save you and it does because you know that even in all the darkness, someone picks up your hand and makes you feel the pulse of your heart and in for a moment in time you get a glimpse of salvation.
Now I realize I’m not insane. I understand the human condition in its weakest and at its greatest. Life is beautifully painful. It is in the darkest hour that the moon shines brightest. The inner strength and will to survive flourish in times of trial. Darkness passes to light, winter to spring, and one finds love in its fullness in an unloving world.
I have just had the most beautiful time of my life. This evening I walked through the coconut plantation along the Jais Aben road catching glimpses of the moon. I smiled to myself and took a deep breath of fresh air. I’ll be heading for the big smoke to spend the holidays.
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