How Grey is your Grey Day?

Coming from the tropics where the sun shines almost 10 months of the year, I couldn't help noticing how grey it can be in the Northern hemisphere especially as you get closer to the arctic circle.

During this time of the year, here in the northern countries during the winter if you have 1 hour of sunlight, it is like winning a lottery. The daylight is scarce and the days are mostly grey (like when heavy rain clouds cover the sky in Malawi).

As the amount of daylight reduces every day due to the sun moving southwards from 21st June to 21st December, one can not help to appreciate what a great weather we have at home.

When I first arrived in Sweden I could not understan why people would run out and lay themselved in the sun during a beautiful summer day. With time I realised what an expensive entity and a scarce commodity the sun is on this side of the world. I learned to appreciate what I used to take for granted like a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies, a beautiful spring day, a golden autumn day and a snow white winter day. I learned to appreciate the little things that happen each day as it came and just be happy for another day that went by.

Sometimes just like me, I am sure we miss on some of the most beautiful opportunities in life because we overlook them or we think they are not so important.
Its just like how we take walking, breathing, seeing and quiet and calm peaceful moments for granted until we meet someone who cant walk, or cant breath without a life support, or one who has an ailment which cant allow them to stay still, you can add on to the list.

So if you think your day id GREY, know that someone else could be having a much more GREY close to BLACK day. Therefore let us learn to appreciate every moment of our days.

All the best as you appreciate this day, for the Bible says " This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it". There are no conditions that have been put in this verse, for example that "I will only rejoice and be glad in a day when ......."
Let us learn to be thankful eveyday.

Enjoy the weekend

ONLY BELIEVE!

How many times have you managed to lose something or not been able to achieve what you could only because you did not believe that it could happen.

Yesterday I found myself in an interesting situation, I had to connect between two buses to get to my destination. I find myself in a country where time is very important and everything happens or is done on time.

So here I was sitting on the first bus which was scheduled to arrive at my connection point at 9:13am, my next bust was at 9:19am. As we drove through the traffic, I could not help realizing that I will not be able to make it for my connecting bus, I was about to start thinking of my plan B, that is a nice way of saying I was beginning to get worried. As I was in the process of starting to think of what I will do in case I miss the bus, there was a Bible verse that just came into my mind " ..only believe, ALL things are possible..." I chuckled and told myself "I believe". I was still in a bit of doubt honestly, but I prayed and said, "God help my unbelief". I sat on the bus, I looked at the time it was 9:15am and we were not close to my connecting point, and to make matters worse to take the next but I needed to cross one of the major roads which happens to be the bussiest street as well. Time was not on my side.

I got off the first bus and did not bother to look at my watch, I checked the direction where the connecting bus was coming from, the bus was not yet in sight. I crossed the road and as I was just finishing the crossing there was my bus just about to leave the bus stop, I ran and guess what I got it, just on time. The interresting part was the driver saw me from a distance and he waited until I got on the bus.

Talk about believing, I thanked God for that moment. This continued throughout the day as there were a lot of things that I had to do, they seemed so impossible but the sentence kept echoing in my head "..only believe, ALL things are possible.." And at the end of it all, everything went well.

Indeed all things are possible if we only believe and have faith in God.

I thought I would share this story with you my coleagues.

Do your best to believe, today.

Blessings

A TRIBUTE TO PIYASONI KACHEPATSONGA

It was my birthday, my big birthday, I was so excited and happy, I thanked God for the life He gave to me. On the other side of the wolrd at the same time a great life had just been taken back to God the creator, my heart was broken and I was in terrible shock.

It was Piya, the same Piya, the God's Marvelous Creation (GMC) Piya, a son, a brother and a great friend. We all could just not take it in without expressing the shock.

Some of you reading this blog may not know him, but to those of us who knew him, its hard to believe that 2nd December 2008 was your last day Piya on this earth.

I met Piya at Chanco, when he came to join GMC theatre, a christian drama group that went out evangelizing and spreading the word of God through drama. When Piya joined the group we could not help noticing the talent that was embedded in this young man. He was a great director and play writer. He always had interesting imaginations and ways of acting which would always spark a heated discussion most of the times during the rehearsal. But at the end of it all it was just GMC.

I remember the time we had to act "KUMASANO", this was a great production which all GMC remembers. It was a play that we acted in many schools and we never stopped appreciating how each time we acted it came out different.

After Chanco we re-united as GMC alumini and called ourselves GMCA. We still had the same goal reach out to many young souls in schools. As time went by with age, most members got married but we still tried to keep GMCA together. Piya worked hard to keep GMCA together with several members who were in Blantyre, Lilongwe and many parts of Malawi, he did not give up on the dream of GMCA. There was a dream of having a film of one of GMCA plays I dont know how far you took that one Piya. Unfortunately, I can not ask you now, but I know you dreamed big for GMCA.

Some of the interesting moments were when we had to dance "Kumasano " on the weddings of members of GMCA. You were on the lead, with the "Kumasano chant". I am sure GMCA remebers "Kumasanooooooooooo eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh, Kumasanoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

There is a lot members of GMCA would want to write about Piya. And I have put together this tribute on my blog so that all the members of GMCA and all friends can comment and add on what fond memories we shared.

We are separated now physically, but you are always with us everyday, as we look at your photos, as we walk past St. Columba, as we walk past HHI, as we walk past Salima turn-off, everywhere we go you will always be in our memories.

We will always remember you Piya, as one of our GMCA members put it: May the great "Kumasano" rest in peace. The great Piya will always be rembered. He was so dear to us at GMC. He was a God's Marvellous creation! (EK)

Mnyamata wa pa Lizulu, wakwambewe, womwetulira bwino, nyamata wodziwa kuyankhula chichewa, wokonda chikhalidwe cha chi Malawi, m'ngoni woyenda ndi litchowa, sitidzakuyiwala PIYA!

I will always remember the last time I met you at shoprite in Lilongwe in 2007, you were just back from a youth conference in Kenya. I didn't know that that was the last time I was seeing you, in this life. You will always be remembered.

Piya, you were indeed God's Marvelous Creation.
We will MISS YOU SO MUCH!

MAY YOU REST IN PEACE.
LOVE GMC and GMCA

A SPLIT SECOND CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE!

My dear friends, its been a while since I posted an entry but here we are today, there is something to share.

I was walking in the city where I live, coming from a shopping centre which is located close to a busy bus and train terminal. As I walked amongst the crowds, I heard a voice say "you", I just took a glance from the corner of my eye because I was not sure who was being addressed. After a few seconds I realised that the "you" was for me because there was an old lady standing in front of me with her eyes fixed on me. My first thought was what does she want from me, then my second thought came, do I really have to stop and hear what she has to say, I dont really know this person. But a big urge within me said stop and listen so I did. With a smile I looked at the old lady and said "yes", she looked at me and said "could you please help me pick the coin by my feet?" I smiled and said "sure" I picked up the coin and gave it to her. She said thanks, and I smiled and walked away.

Even though I was walking away from her, my thoughts were still with her. I thought to myself, what if I had ignored her (which I could have easily done), all she needed was just a little help to pick a coin. Due to old age she could not bend and all she did was just to stand next to where her money was. I turned to look around if she was still standing at the same spot, I realised she was walking into the shopping centre. I am sure if I had walked away without picking that coin, she would still wait there until somebody picked it for her.

As I might have mentioned earlier on in one of my entries, I find myself living in an interesting society, where everybody cares about their own bussiness and old people are the least in the society that one would care about. Here old people either have to be put at a retirement home or can stay on their own in their apartments hence the need to go shopping for food. It is possible that this old lady had tried to ask several people to help her with the coin, but may be they ignored her or just did not care.

I am sharing this story, which happened yesterday by the way, just to say that there are small things that we can ignore, or feel like they are not worth doing for others that would make a huge difference in their lives.

I am sure you can remember of such moments in your life where all you needed was just a few minutes, or seconds but no one was there to help or somebody came and everything worked out.

All I can say is that friend, take a moment to listen when someone stops you, in our busy life we can still spare a few seconds, that could change somebody's life or brighten their day.

All the best as you think about this story, honestly it got me thinking.

Blessings and all the best as we enter the advent season.

Forces of Gravity at Work!

My dear friends today I thought we take sometime to look at work environments and how they can affect our performance. When I say work environment, this includes those studying in different institutions, those working in different offices and departments and every kind of environment you find yourself in where you have to interact with people.

I have titled today’s discussion “Forces of Gravity at Work” what I mean is working in an environment where colleagues are pulling you down. How do I mean pulling you down, I mean working with people who are happy to see your downfall and not your success. People who try their best to block you in whatever you do, those who do their best to hide information from you because they want to be the best, this is the kind of environment that I am talking about.

After having attended a workshop involving African women scientists in Sweden and Europe and hearing their stories about their journey to success I could not help it but write this article. It was sad and at the same interesting to see how far these women have come with their struggle to fit in a society where they stand out as “different”. A society which had judged them by their background (where they come from) and not qualification, how did these women manage to stand out and fight this “force of gravity”?

Hearing their stories, one would see that most of these women while trying to integrate in the societies where they find themselves in; they have not forgotten where they come from (home countries). Most of these women are doing projects which are supporting and benefiting their societies at home and also working in the countries where they currently find themselves to the benefit of these countries.

It's not only women who are facing these kind of challenges, there are also a lot of men who have found themselves in such kind of environments where coworkers be it in research, or in industry are pulling them down. It happens sometimes that even bosses are the ones who pull down their own subordinates trying to block them from developing a better career.

My dear friends my discussion here is that you should never be discouraged by those people who are trying to pull you down. One thing you have to know is that each one of us has potential to thrive and achieve the best. Work hard where ever you are no matter what people around you are saying or think, no matter how much they try to pull you down, keep your head above the water. You have potential and you can achieve the best.

I wish you all the best as you ponder on this discussion and know that you can get your dreams and be the best.

ONE DAY AT A TIME

Thanks for your comment Dee Dee, it sheds more light to what true friendship is all about.

Today I had some other thoughts which I thought we could share, this thought is also a result of my day to day observations.

Walking around the streets in the city where I find myself in currently, I cant help to notice some people very humbly dressed, with a face reflecting their line of thoughts "NO HOPE". They move around with all they have, they dont have a home, they dont have savings, all they have they carry it with them. To them they take life "a day at a time".

At the same time I cant help to notice those people who have their life going well, everything almost in place, they have a job, a steady income at the end of the month, a home and you can add on to the list. The interesting thing with this group of people is that they live life in plans of "in five years time I will....." or "in ten years time..."

I thought we centre our discussion on the question, which of the two categories of people really live by hope?

It is funny to note that the people who reflect the line "NO HOPE" are the ones who really live by hope, they hope to see the next day, they hope to find food for the day, they hope to meet someone who will smile at them and brighten their day. Even though it seems like all hope is lost in their lives, they still live hoping for a better day.

On the other hand the group which seems to have it all worked out, mostly live with lots of uncertainity. Their lives are filled with the question "what if...." In this case there is nothing like hope all there is is I have to work hard so that the "what if.." I just thought about should not happen.

Life is very interesting these are just two extremes of people but all in all, how do we take life ourselves? I believe no matter what ones status is, we ought to be grateful and thankful for each new day. There are so many things that can happen not even in a day but in a split second which can turn our lives upside down.

I urge you my friends instead of spending time complaining about what we dont have, let us look back at what we have and be thankful for it.

It is always "ONE DAY AT A TIME". We may have five year, 10 year even a 100years plan, but it all takes a day at a time to be accomplished.

I hope to hear your views on life as pertaining to the things discussed above.

All the best.Until next time, remember life is always one day at a time, it can never go any faster or slower!

The Reason Why!

For the past weeks I have been thinking a lot about the reason why certain things are the way they are. I have been walking in different streets and meeting different people from all walks of life. Some people looked happy, others well dressed and others looked sad and blown down by the winds of life.

This made me ponder a bit on what is the meaning of life and why some people seem to have it good and others not, why others seem to be always on the down side of life while others are soaring high and happy.

These thoughts also led me to think about friendships. I was asking the question who is my friend, how much can I invest in a friendship, and how much can I trust my friend?

Thinking about these questions, I have seen that there are so many unanswered questions in life which everyone tries to address in their own different way that seems right and appropriate. Solutions to these qustions may be good for a certain group of people and not for others.

This led me into thinking of the saying “life is not fair”, is life indeed not fair? Is there something we can do to make it fair?

Are friends really forever, or they are only for a certain period? How can one know who is a true friend? Can one ever have a true friend? Is there anything as a true friend?

I believe there are many different answers that can be given to the different questions I have posed here.

Which ever the case, I think it is possible to have a true friend as long as one is willing to invest in the friendship.

As for the question “is life fair”? Well there are a lot of challenges in our world and in the human mind and eye; it is difficult t say that life is fair.

I would love to hear your views on this topic.

Until next time stay blessed and as you think about yourselves, think about others as well.