My neighbor’s son is called Wanderi. He must be four years old or so. When the other children in the neighborhood are playing, Wanderi will be quietly sitting by himself with his collection of little rocks and small pieces of paper amusing himself. With his awkward lopsided gait, it is impossible for him to keep up with the fast games that other children play and his limited vocabulary and sing song voice will not let him fit in with the rest. His unusual development makes him immature for his age. On the other hand, his sister who is one or two years older is much more mature that her tender age. Amidst the excitement of all the games, she keeps a close watch on his baby brother, making sure that no one bothers him, and that he does not put unwanted objects in his mouth. She is so protective that when I first tried being friends with Wanderi, she couldn’t let it happen. Being very trusting, Wanderi has no problem approaching a stranger who calls out to him. But before he could make the few steps that will get him to me, the sister would physically step in between me and him and firmly plant herself there with a huge smile showing a set of teeth that were still growing. Eventually, she decided to approve of me and now I am free to interact with Wanderi whenever I find the group of children at play.

Wanderi is one friend that anyone would like to have. The warmth of his spirit makes you feel warm in your heart. When he sees you, he will immediately call out your name and unintentionally mispronounce it loudly. He will then abandon whatever he was doing and stand up as quickly as he can, stepping all over his precious little rocks and papers in the haste. He will be smiling all the way and you can see his 2 cute little front teeth as he starts to run towards you. With legs that are not strong enough to carry his rocking body, he will set out in a gait that will help him move in your direction as rapidly as he can. In the last few steps, he will throw all physics out of the window and will give his all. If you do not throw out your hands to catch him, he would tumble down and perhaps roll in the great momentum gained in just a few moments. And this moment of meeting another human being is such a thrilling event for him that he will squeal with glee.

I have watched that little moment over and over again, and it reminds me of a big jumbo jet streaking down a runway, with its wings all spread out, just about to take off. It is inevitable that if the plane does not fly, it would disintegrate into pieces. How does it feel like to have Wanderi’s brand of trusting? How it must be to be able to trust truly and completely! To trust so much as to know that if the other person does not catch you, it is inevitable – just as the jet plane – that you would literally and completely tumble down into a thousand little pieces.

When I woke up this morning, I thought about a problem that needed a solution and began wondering how I was going to figure it out. As I lay in bed for just a little while before getting up, I began thinking what I would do differently today, that I didn’t already do yesterday and the day before yesterday to solve the problem. And that is when a different thought came and I suddenly wondered how many times my heart was going to beat today. Immediately after, another thought wondered how many times my lungs would expand and contract in breathing before the day is over. And as if I had opened a dam of wonderment, I found myself wondering about the various functions that my stomach, liver, pancreas, kidneys, brain and many other organs that I might not even be aware of will be performing. As I once again wondered about how I would go about solving the problem, I also wondered who or what would be taking care of all the problems that are solved by the functions that my organs perform each day. Can I ask for assistance from that power in finding a solution to my problem today?

Thinking back to the conversations that I have had in the last few days with a friend, it seems like life hasn’t turned out exactly as either one of us expected. But as I think about it I am reminded of all the streams that drain their waters into the ocean each day. As each stream flows closer to the ocean it is filled with great expectations. This stream says excitedly to itself, “my water is very clear and so I will clean up the whole ocean!”, only to find that the ocean water is cloudy from violent waves and it becomes contaminated. Another stream haughtily says to itself, “my water is fresh and I will take freshness wherever I go”, and it gets into the ocean and its water immediately turns salty. Another one has known filth all its life and dejectedly believes that it will contaminate the whole ocean, until its water is sanitized and it knows cleanliness for the first time. And yet another has painfully tumbled down hills and gorges and has never known peace until it encounters the gentle lull of the ocean.

Each person that goes out into the sea of life has different expectations until he or she encounters the world of people and mixes up with them, sometimes with highly unexpected results. So, do we cry for the purity that used to be? For the innocence that was lost? Or do we curse the callous that was developed? Just as the stream should embrace the new reality of a fathomless sea with diverse waters from a million streams, so should we embrace the strange world that we sometimes find ourselves in.

A few years ago, I noticed that I had a bad back. Each time I stood up after bending for a few minutes, my back would unbend with a dull pain that made me want to bend back to the position that I was earlier. The pain would persist for a few minutes and would eventually die down until the next time that I bent. And so I learnt how to do my chores while standing upright. If I wanted to wash clothes, I would elevate the basin so that I wouldn’t have to bend. If I wanted to iron clothes, I would do it on the dinner table top to avoid having to bend. I also ensured that those chores didn’t last long to avoid the discomfort.

Despite my precautions, it got worse when I noticed that each morning, I would get the same dull pain on my back as soon as I got out of bed. But then I attributed all that to my bad back, and so I started doing exercises that would help strengthen the back. I also thought that I should acquire a massager in order to ease the tension in my back.

At about the same time, one of my friends used my bad and complained that my mattress was very uncomfortable. At first, I was defensive since it was a beautiful ‘high density’ 6 inch thick foam mattress that I had acquired a while back. But now that the seed of curiosity had been planted, I started paying attention to my mattress. I noticed that I liked sleeping on one side of the bed, and as a result had created a small impression where I dipped into each night. When I slept on the other side of the bed, I noticed that it felt strange, but I woke up the following morning without a back ache. And as if by coincidence, I went to see another friend who was attending physio-therapy at a centre that focused on treatment through correct flow of energy throughout the body. On that day, one of the facilitators was talking about the benefits of having a healthy backbone. He explained that apart from propping us up when we are standing, the backbone also acts as a centre for processing all the information collected by the nerves that are spread all over the body. He concluded that any blockage of energy in the backbone results in pain and illness in the body. In the long run, sleeping on a bad mattress or a bad bed for years will cause back problems in many people. However, since it often becomes a life disrupting problem later in life, most people attribute their woes to old age. Incidentally, the room was filled with old people with all sorts of physical ailments in addition to an aching back.

Armed with that information, I went to Nakumatt Supermarket to buy myself a new mattress. After consulting with the helpful attendant, I ended up buying a spring reinforced Slumberland “orthopedic” mattress. It came with a user guide with the dos and don’ts of a mattress and a five year manufacturer’s warranty. For example, did you know that you should regularly flip your mattress side to side and head to toe? This is similar to fluffing a pillow and prevents creating depressions in the mattress. Did you also know that on an ordinary night, your body loses moisture that is absorbed into the mattress? It is therefore important to air your mattress by turning back the covers each day to allow the moisture to escape. This is especially important on hot nights or when you have an illness that makes you sweat.

At KShs. 20,000, this was one of the most expensive mattresses at the shop. But exactly one year later, I am happy to say that this was the best investment of my money for the year 2009. My morning back pain is gone, and I can comfortably bend for as low and as long as it takes to finish any task. Plus I learnt a few things that I didn’t know about how to make the best use of my mattress from the Slumberland mattress user’s manual.

My friend is going for a camping trip at a beach in Malaysia. And as I think about that, I remember something that she told me that changed my perspective about the sea. She talked about standing at the beach and looking out into the open to see the meeting of the sea, the land and the sky. I was so taken back by that, that it made every trip to the beach worthwhile. Standing there observing the meeting of the 3 elements. That is a very powerful feeling.

Her camping trip reminds me of each morning that we leave the house. I would imagine it is like taking a dive under the sea. What do we see? I am sure when you make your dive, you will be thrilled to see the crabs and the sea weeds. And at other times you might dive on a coral garden and observe the beautiful pinks and the bright colors of the rocks. You might also see the schools of fish and other interesting inhabitants of the ocean. If feeling adventurous, you might even go for a treasure hunt in a sunken pirate ship.

But there is also the possibility of a person just staying close to the beach and playing it safe at the shallow end. Maybe when one is way past their prime and taking stock of their life, they might realize that they are still flapping their arms at the shallow end – where they started off when they were children.

So each day that you leave the house, ask yourself where you are going to play today. Will you play where you played yesterday, and last week, or the 12th of February 10 years ago? Or will you dare to go just a little bit deeper and see something that you have never seen before?

Each time I see a group of old friends and participate in conversations, I always go home with something to think about. For example after last night’s discussion about health, I was to later reflect on something that I once read.

It talked about the 3 dimensions of life that give us balance. These are
Physical, mental and spiritual. If any one of those areas is lacking, we feel out of control. This is despite how much stronger we are in other areas. For example, it does not matter how strong and intellectual you are; you will feel the lack of the spiritual aspect of your life. On the other hand, a spiritually rich person who has a weak body will feel lacking.

It is important to make regular contribution in the 3 areas. And as you should often remind yourself, it is similar to making a saving in a bank account. And though it might seem as if one is living thrift, the rewards are already there if they look carefully.

What about money? Yes, money is important. But only as an ‘aesthetic’. Meaning that money serves the purpose of coloring our lives with fine things, and we all like that. But as you go about the business of making money, remember that a healthy body appreciates walking more than a sick body appreciates being driven in a convoy of limousines.

So appreciate all the vigorous things that your healthy body can do for you. Marvel at all the worlds that reading can open up for you to see. Be humbled by the wholeness that communing with God can restore in your Spirit.

More power to you in body, mind and spirit!

I am sitting on a table in the middle of the living room, the palms of my hands wrapped around a warm cup of tea that I have been sipping slowly for about 20 minutes. Outside the window with the curtains drawn all the way, it is a bright sunny day that promises to get hot. From the direction of the main gate leading into the walled compound where I live, a group of neighborhood children are making unexcited noises as they wait for the bus to collect them and take them to school. And as I look blankly through the window, I see a beetle laboriously walking up the edge of one of the flowered curtain partitions that dutifully hangs down the brown wooden curtain box. My eyes follow the beetle as it reaches the top of the curtain and starts walking across. Soon it disappears behind one of the folds and I take the last sip of the lukewarm tea as I stand up to start off my day.

I find myself wondering about the beetle, and I remember one morning I found a slug trailing slowly across the green metal barrier at my balcony. Since I live 3 floors up, I wondered just how much effort it might have taken the slug to move from the ground to this level many metres up. And so I wonder the same for the beetle. When did it come from and where is it going?

When I think about it, the beetle must have a mother and a father and probably brothers and sisters that it left behind. Perhaps back at its home in Beetle Land, it was surrounded by other beetles, just like it. I would imagine that the beetle lived in a community where every good beetle does something to enrich its life while simultaneously contributing towards the welfare of all beetles. For example, some beetles sourced for food all day while others took care of the youngsters. Some beetles taught other beetles and others fought for the rights of disadvantaged beetles. Then there was the wealthy beetle that had marked off a big portion of Beetle Land that no other beetle was allowed to access. That beetle would walk around and all other beetles would pretend to like him. On the day the beetle dies, other beetles will congregate and say how much they liked him before hurriedly sweeping him under the carpet and dividing his land amongst themselves. Surprisingly, the new owners of the land would mark off their territories and bar other beetles from accessing it. They then would walk around like the beetle they used to hate, and other beetles would pretend to like them.

In Beetle Land, every beetle tries to distinguish itself from other beetles by making itself more beautiful, talking smarter, puffing up its body, chirping louder, and generally doing anything to outdo all the other beetles. Each day, every sphere of life at Beetle Land was filled with competition for who is more or has more. And as a result, for many generations the beetles have been doing the same things over and over again. Nothing ever changed because life was all about outdoing what the other beetle has already done. While talking to each other, each beetle looked happy and excited, but they all had a sense of sadness that resulted in a lack of real purpose in life. Only few of them seem to know why they were here in the first place.

It was in this sense of despair that the beetle woke up one day and decided to change the course of his life. And so early that morning, he took off on a path that didn’t lead to anywhere he has ever been. The beetle knew of no other beetle that had walked this way and also understood that he would have to walk this path alone. However, any path that didn’t lead to the mundane daily existence of Beetle Land was welcome. And so he ended up having a purpose to move along in the path that he had taken. He knew the dangers of branching away from the beaten path, and so was grateful for every breathe that he took. But I guess most of all, he was glad that he was free from the daily competition at Beetle land whose bounty was vanity and price in vain. And that is perhaps how he ended up on my curtain this morning.

Back in Beetle Land, they probable remember him and shake their heads in sadness and say how lost he is. While out there in the world of curtains, he probably remembers them and shakes his head in sadness and says how lost they are.

I am sure you know that feeling that comes when you are trying to get business and the person that is giving you the business becomes elusive. Sometimes you call and they pick up your phone and promise to call you back and they don’t. Other times you call and they do not pick up at all. When you come face to face with them, they tell you a story that makes you vindicate them after they promise that all will be well, only for you to call them the following day and they do not pick up your phone.
In such cases, you are annoyed and usually promise yourself that it will be the last call that you will make. After all, you tell yourself, just how much money is the deal worth? Unfortunately, it always is at the time when you need that money and so you find yourself making the call to the same person once again.

When you know that you are working with a person who does not have a lot of respect for you or the services that you are offering, what do you do? In most cases, we get annoyed at the person, but keep setting ourselves up for disrespect. But what else is there to do? This might be a perfect opportunity for us to examine the situation and once again ask ourselves, “What kind of a business person am I?” Well, you know the kind of a person you are doing business with, but can you take responsibility and choose to get out of such relationships? Of course the sacrifice will be the business that you will miss out. But given that you are going to be in business for many years to come, wouldn’t it be time to start weeding out the undesirable business practices before they taint your outlook?

Did you know that Muindi Mbingu (for whom Muindi Mbingu Street in Nairobi is named) was a Kamba policeman who led the Akamba in resisting British colonialism in pre-independent Kenya? Read on…

Samuel Muindi Mbingu was born in 1893 and schooled up to form four at Kabete Technical. After form four he joined the Kenya Power and later the police. During this time the colonial government had taken most of the Kamba land and the Kamba community, which was mainly pastoralism, send to reserved areas.

In 1937 the DC with instruction from the governor took cattle from the “Nungu’s” meaning “monkeys/primitive blacks referring to the local natives. The government believed that the wealth of cattle made the kambas disobedient thus the wealth is taken so as to gain control over them. Besides taking the cattle the locals were also forced to make terraces in their shambas. This treatment provoked the vocal of fearless Muindi Mbingu to leave the police and mobilize others like Elijah Kavulu and Isaac Mwalonzi to fight for the rights of their people. Due to his fearless character, he commanded a lot of respect and obedience from people particularly from Ngelani and Kangundo regions and elected the chairman of the committee to address the people’s problems. In 1938, all the cattle in Kamba, Ngelani, Koma-rock region leaving the locals without any cattle. It was at this point that Muindi Mbingu mobilized all the people where they agreed not to let their cattle go and not to make terraces in the shambas. This agreement was summarized in a slogan “No Kikuu” meaning “as previously agreed”. From then they all refused the DC’s meeting and whenever they attended they would leave. Incase of a disagreement saying “No Kikuu”. With no solution to the problems of the local’s. Muindi Mbingu led

All the people of Ngelani, the old and the young, men and women in the biggest demonstration to Nairobi. More than 80 km so as to meet the government or himself. They went to “Kariokor”. Then courier corps” where they stayed for one month all this time seeking to see the governor but being barred. All this time Muindi Mbingu organized how food for the people would be transported from Ngelani to Nairobi. At the end of the month the governor’s wife passed by and saw women suckling their young ones in the cold and this touched her so much and an act she wanted addressed by the governor and hence Muindu Mbingu and his committee went to the governor. Where they agreed to release the cattle to the owners.

During the courier corps meeting, when asked what he wanted done to his people he responded in the local Kamba language – “twenda kwikala ta maau mau maitu, twithye ngombe to Mau mau maitu, nunmdu nthi ino ni ya maau mau maitu. (We want to live like our grandfathers, keep cattle like our grandfathers, for the land we live on is our grandfathers). The colonialist later accused him of being the founder of “Mau Mau uprising “- the Mau Mau is accredited to this brave nationalist.

From this time (1938) the colonial government accused Muindi Mbingu of leading a revolt called Mau Mau. It was against this background that he was arrested and detained for seven years in the Coastal Islands of Lamu.

After release, he was com-promised by then D.C and collaborator with the colonial government, a move, which annoyed the people, he had previously led fighting against the abuse of their rights. This led to his brutal murder in 1953; his death marked the climax of Mau Mau revolution with others like former President Kenyatta championing the Mau Mau causes.

What Muindi Mbingu did for his people is worth remembering hence Muindi Mbingu street in Nairobi.

From: http://www.kenyakeep.org

I think one of the most intriguing things in this life is the way that we never quite are satisfied with the way that our lives are at any one moment. For example when a person is single, they want to be with someone else and when one is with someone else, they want to be single again. Many people can’t seem to decide what they want. I guess it is all about the case of the grass looking greener on the other side.

Last year, my friend Delasoi and I needed to have a talk concerning her career. She used to work along Uhuru Highway and so we decided to cross the road and look for a quiet spot to talk at Central Park. When we got into Central Park, we moved for sometime looking for a bench to sit on, but they were all taken. And so we decided to sit on the grass. It had rained recently, and so we would have to go to a spot that had long grass to avoid getting muddy. From where we were standing, there was a nice and inviting patch of green grass in the shade under a tree and so we decided to sit there. After walking for a few metres, we got to the spot and it turned out to be too wet for comfort. Again, we saw another patch of grass a few metres away and once again we walked over. When we got there, it turned out that the grass was too scattered for us to sit without our clothes getting stained by the red soil. And once again we spotted another patch and we moved there with the same results. We moved for a few more times before we looked at each other in stupefied comprehension. The reason why the grass always looked greener over there was because we were looking at it from the side; the view from the side gave it a false appearance of being more concentrated than it really was – hence greener. But when we looked at it at close quarters from above, it appeared sketchy since we were seeing the blades of grass from the top.

So, what kind of a person are you? That is a question that you will have to answer to yourself over and over and over again if you plan to remain yourself. Why? Because that question serves as the light house that enables us to navigate the sea that comprises being a human being. At one time, we think that we ought to be more lively; we go out daily for a few nights and it drains the life out of us. At other times we want to be serious; we work with so much concentration that it dulls us to the bone. At other times we want to be outgoing; we follow other people around until we realize that we are becoming puppy dogs. And in all these times, there is the person that you are running away from. So, what kind of a person are you? Be that.

What kind of a person are you? Never get tired of asking that question, and never be afraid of the answer. For no matter where you are, grass with be green.