Is Your Water Running Deep or Shallow?

Dear Loving People,

Really, I should ask you the question; is your water running deep or shallow? While I grew up through primary school, I quickly memorized the adage “slow waters run very deep.” The few of us, who shared the pleasure of guessing what that meant, were often quick to make that statement to a mate whom we assumed to be discreet and who suddenly committed an offence. We were often self-confident in making that statement especially with the aura of an intellectual.

Have you asked yourself what that statement could actually mean after all? I would say it's based on the simple notion that the deepest rivers and streams do have the calmest surfaces. When you look at them on the surface, they look like nothing at all is happening, but behold! Below, the water is flowing at a high velocity.

Now let’s come back to our lives, if you observe well, you will notice that most people who have a calm exterior enjoy rich and interesting personalities. Get close to some of them; you will notice they have fascinating ideas. What then do we make of this? The lesson here is that, those who are quiet, seem to be slow or appear withdrawn, may be worth paying more attention to than the talkative and vibrant types like me. Don’t get me wrong here; I am not insinuating that introversion is a better personality type than extroversion.

In the Christian Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:7 says “All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again” (ESV)

Streams and rivers flow into the seas year-in, year-out yet they make more noise than the seas that absorb them. Think about what a river sounds like especially at the upper course. It is shallow, so noisy, bubbling, transporting huge rocks that hit against one another, causing massive erosion and creating tons of silt. What happens as it approaches the mighty sea? It gets deeper and calmer. The huge rocks are broken down to pebbles and sand, the silt is beginning to settle down and only the sludge remains in suspension.

When the river meets the giant sea, it completely calms down; dropping off the entire load it’s been transporting from source and gets lost in the mighty waters of the sea. The sea with all its huge volumes of water is relatively calm, extremely deep and ready to accommodate the river.

Quiet people are often very thoughtful; they process information before making statements. Outgoing people on the other hand like me, process information while they talk. You must know where you fall and start making the best of it. That is a stepping stone to success.

While You Sit On The Elephant

Dear loving people,

A friend of mine – Victoire shared an African proverb that was read on the BBC last Tuesday 4^th September 2012. It read thus “When you are on top of an elephant, do not pretend there is no dew on the grass”. You can’t imagine how much this thought provoking proverb got me reflecting, it’s even been used during the ongoing 2012 Obama campaign.

Can you imagine for a second how often we forget the people who toiled with us to get us where we are today? Their empathy and dedication to us while we needed them is soon forgotten. We ignore at times even hate them once we attain what some have termed ‘glory’. N.D. Wilson writes “Self-loathing and self-worship can easily be the same thing. You hate the small sack of fluids and resentments that you are, and you would go to any length, and betray anything and anyone, to preserve it.”

You must remember at all times that excellent builders equally master how to scatter. N.D. Wilson continues to say that “Your life is your own, your glory is your glory, but you will lose it if you keep it for yourself. Grasp it for the sake of others...”

When you are on top of an elephant, keep it at the center of your mind how you got there, there will come a time when the elephant will stop walking and you will need to climb down. The very people who got you up there will be the ones to hold your hand as you climb down. If you are the type that used your past ‘glory’ to abuse, subdue and shunt the same people who toiled so hard to get you up there in the first place, rest assured the fall from grace to grass will be catastrophic.

You can only pretend there is no dew on the grass once sitting on an elephant because you forget so soon the life you led before climbing up there, you now think you sail above the issues that once bogged you and the people you now neglect.

N.D. Wilson advice “Do not resent your place in the story. Do not imagine yourself elsewhere. Do not close your eyes and picture a world without thorns, without shadows, without hawks. Change this world. Use your body like a tool meant to be used up, discarded, and replaced. Better every life you touch. We will reach the final chapter. When we have eyes that can stare into the sun, eyes that only squint for the Shenikah, then we will see laughing children pulling cobras by their tails, and hawks and rabbits playing tag.”

You must remain a man of the people even when you cruise in glory on the elephant. Your capacity to remain a man of the people at such times is proportionate to your determination to shunt evil and N.D. Wilson again, has this to say “Sometimes standing against evil is more important than defeating it. The greatest heroes stand because it is right to do so, not because they believe they will walk away with their lives. Such selfless courage is a victory in itself”

For always, remember that there is a price tag on every option in life. Victory at the end will be on the side of those who choose the positive options of life.

Remain blessed

The Frog at the Bottom of the Well

Dear loving people,

Permit me to speak to your inner person this morning. Take a few minutes to reflect with me down these thought provoking lines. Here we go…

How often do you think too small, how often do you allow yourself to endure the underserved pain of selling yourself too short? How often have you abandoned the struggle just a stone’s throw to the finish-line?

Students have abandoned school just a few weeks to their final exams; athletes have abandoned the race just a few steps to finishing, I once gave up just a day before success was to be pronounced in a project I undertook.

Mao Zedong, commonly referred to as Chairman Mao (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976), was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, anti-imperialist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution. He was the architect and founding father of the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949, and held authoritarian control over the nation until his death in 1976. His theoretical contribution to Marxism–Leninism, along with his military strategies and brand of policies, are collectively known as Maoism.

My intention is not to talk about his life and achievements but out of all the things he said and did, I pick out the following statement that he made which is to me, a dictum for any success oriented personality.

“We think too small. Like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view”

Wao!! What a saying and how does this translate to us today? That you should change your views, jump out of your little well of countless stereotypes and discover what the universe of opportunities and possibilities you still have before you. Even if you are not willing, you can be willing to learn to be willing.

Even if you are nothing today, trust me, you can be something tomorrow.