I spend an average of 3 hours a day in
a matatu. That adds up to 21 hours in a week, 84 in a month. I spend 3 and half
days in a month sitting a matatu.
So anyway, I started reading. From the
minute I get a seat, even if it’s the crack between two seats, I get out a book
and read. At night, I use the torch in my phone. I was actually blown when I
noticed how many books I was churning out just by reading on my commute.
So if you don’t have time to read,
maybe you should leave the car at home few days in a month.
- Your thoughts can derail perspective
One of the new things that people began
to find out in the last century was that thoughts-just mere thoughts-are as
powerful as electric batteries-as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for
one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as
dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body,,, If you let it
stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live.
As long as Mistress Mary’s mind was
full of disagreeable thoughts about her dislikes and sour opinions of people
and her determination not to be pleased by or interested in anything, she was a
yellow-faced, sickly, bored and wretched child..but when her mind gradually filled
itself with robins, a moor boy and his creatures, springtime,,,they was no room
left for her disagreeable thoughts which affected her liver and her digestion
and made her yellow and tired.
Frances
Hodgson Burnett, The secret Garden. 1911.
- On Possessions
Everything should exist in the right
place, in the right way. Store each thing carefully, giving attention to the
fact that there are differences between caring for something by putting it in a
safe place and hoarding it or imprisoning it. Storing items poorly or
forgetting about them is no different from abandonment. Even if something is
being put away for a great length of time, visit from time to time, remembering
how it came to you, reminding yourself of its value, and checking on its
condition. Make periodic inventories of any new possessions you’ve acquired.
Lay them out and look at them. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge mistakes you may
have made in selecting them. Above all, don’t ignore what you have.
Gary Thorp-
The Sweeping Broom. 2000.
This little paragraph had me finally
settle on a capsule wardrobe that works for my needs. When you accumulate stuff
you stop appreciating it, and head out to Kawangware market to buy some more.
- Positive Thinking doesn’t just come, you need practice
Ken, you know the world is full of
unpleasant things. Pain and operations and sickness and discomfort. You mustn’t
mind. That’s just the way life is. Besides all, there is health and goodness
and soundness and fun and happiness too for horses as well as boys-much more of
the good things than the bad-
My friend
Flicka, Mary O’Hara- 1940
-Even soldiers don’t like to go to war-
Frances
Hodgson Burnett, The little Princess-1905
- What Love looks like
-I saw more than anything, that
relationships are not sustained by violence but by love. Love is a creative
act. When you love someone you create a new world for them. My mother did that
for me, and with the progress I made and the things I learned, I came back and
created a new world and new understanding for her.
Born a crime-
Trevor Noah, 2016
If you find love-if a person or an
animal finds love-it’s the same as finding safety, isn’t it? It’s comfort and
friendliness and help. Everyone longs for it-any kind of love
But if Flicka-we’ll say-had found it and yet didn’t have sense enough to know
she’d found it-and went on being crazy and silly with fear-
Then she’s be loco?
Nelly noded.
My friend
Flicka, Mary O’Hara- 1940
(I agree, if we let fear blind us from
the safety of love, we are loco. Every dreamer should read this. Also, your love towards a person or another
life should have you fighting for their rights)
- I ought to of shot that dog myself,
George. I shouldn’t ought to let no stranger shoot my dog.
John
Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men- 1937
I won’t say we human beings still don’t
have much to learn sometimes.
We love and hate without thought. We expect
too much from one another and often we are wrong.
Gail
Tsukiyama, The Samurai’ Garden-1996
5. Don’t be a
loner if you can avoid it.
A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe
reading books or thinkin’ or stuff like that. Sometimes he gets thinkin,’ an’
he got nothing to tell him what’s so an’ what ain’t so. Maybe if he sees it
too. He can’t tell. He got nothing to measure by. I seen things out here. I
wasn’t drunk. I don’t know if I was asleep. If some guy was with me, he could
tell me if I was asleep, an’ then it
would be all right. But I jus’ don’t know.’
John
Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men- 1937
So, what did I learn?
Relationships are what makes us humans.
With people, with ourselves, with animals, with things but we have got to be
actively involved in all of these. It is our responsibility.
