Life and its lessons (4)

Life and its lessons (4)
Kilwa, Tanzania 2017

Life and its lessons (4)

Control: It’s always an illusion to think you have everything under control; the reality is you don’t. Putting things off for tomorrow is one of my bad habits – One of the reason I keep procrastinating is I assume I can control the result, feedback or reactions as much as possible; an illusion I keep saying to myself. My lesson; I don’t have control over situations and people – I don’t control how people react, behave or what they say. What I do have in control is ME – My actions, thoughts, characters & words. Learn to be accountable for who you are, set a higher standard for yourself. Let us not choose to live a life where we decide how we behave according to what others do or how a situation is. We don’t have control over them, but we definitely have control over yourself.

I am Sorry: “You can apologize a thousand times, but if you don't change your actions, your words are meaningless” - Boonaa Mohammed. As I grow older, I understand more the importance of an honest apology. My lesson – I should be sincere in my apologies and the way I treat people, and this also applies to when I don’t agree with other opinions or actions - I should have this in mind. Another important lesson I am learning is to accept apologies that I have not received. This world is an interesting place – you will meet different people that don’t always do right by you. We should develop mechanisms to accept apologies that are not received for us to deal with situations.

Words: Words are powerful and like a friend of mine used to say even silence are unspoken words if we choose to listen. Out of many of our human behaviours I like when we say “waxba caloosha kuma hayn karo/I don’t hold grudges” - it’s very humbling and beautiful meanings behind it – e.g to ask the right questions, reflections, find reasons, talk it through, let it go, forgive. Sometimes though we don’t use it in the positive way; with a disguise of “waxba caloosha kuma hayn karo” we choose to release our anger to the person which sometimes can pain. My lesson - people are not punching bags for us to feel relieved. Let’s use our words wisely – it’s always better not to say anything rather than words that can hurt. And for the one receiving “not so good” words know that sometimes people do them unconsciously or don’t know the weight of how this affects the other; above all - know that you don’t deserve it.

Inspiration: This inspiration is dedicated to Geeddiga Guusha team. From humble beginnings it has reached 2 years of hopefully inspiring many. Thank you, GG, for the dedication, time, efforts and for teaching me the art of small efforts making big impact. My lesson, we don’t have to wait to paint a full picture for us to contribute to our communities. Let us all input a little so that we have a beautiful picture filled with our efforts combined.

Until next time Insha'Allah – Cya

#my_one_step_at_a_time

Zuhur Yasin :)