A gypsy scribbler's musings & ruminations
As many of you know, last year on November 1st I chose not to renew my contract at the school where I had been teaching for five years. I wrestled with God and he won. He asked me to trust him and I said okay. True as it is, saying it that way makes it... Continue Reading →
It's as the good Doctor says: "Time is wibbly."1 We like to think it moves straight -- ever forward in a quantifiable succession of intervals -- but it doesn't. It wraps around us like light bending in prism, unfurling its colors according to the density and shape of the glass. Just so, time speeds up... Continue Reading →
Times of uncertainty and challenge have a way of exposing and even magnifying certain truths that were previously either hard to see or ignored. They also have a way of making other truths trickier to see while masking some altogether. For example: margins. One of the social realities that the lockdown is bringing into sharp... Continue Reading →
Day 10. Presumably we are halfway through this time of government- & neighbor-enforced house arrest. Probably ... hopefully ... and whether that light at the end of the tunnel is real or just a lost lightening bug, these ten days have taught me three things about the world and one thing about myself. There is... Continue Reading →
Okay, I know ... technically the "lockdown" hasn't started yet. At least not in South Africa. That only kicks in for real tomorrow at midnight. Even so, since we haven't seen our students since early March, since I've basically been cocooned at home since March 10th, and since we transitioned to "online learning" on the... Continue Reading →
Outside the gates of my Nairobi home was a rain gutter two feet deep, lined with concrete and hedged by shrubs and succulents. Some bright, sunny mornings, I would turn the corner and see him there. He was always in the same spot, sitting on the corner of the street with his back to the... Continue Reading →
In the last week of October, I had a decision to make. I thought I knew the right answer, and all the voices of Reason affirmed it. My heart, however, (and a lone dissenter) resisted. So began a wrestling match between my heart and my head that ended with my head exploding. It was a... Continue Reading →
The little tidbit below is something I wrote back in June of 2012. I was, at the time, in the tight grip of depression. Lots has happened since then and that grip has lost its hold. Though I still have normal ups and downs, I do not wrestle that beast any more. So why do... Continue Reading →
A long while back, a friend mentioned in passing that he hoped he would fall in love. Though the conversation was an interesting one, what struck me then (oddly) was the least remarkable phrase: "fall in love." Why do we talk of "falling" into love? Is love a trap that catches you unaware? A deep... Continue Reading →
In this cancer-recovery process, I have sometimes wondered which milestone to keep in sight. June 5th 2017 = you have cancer. Mind-altering news.July 18th 2017 = first surgery to remove my thyroid and a handful of lymph nodes. Life-changing experience.March 19th 2018 = second surgery to remove leftover lymph that was still cancerous. Will it... Continue Reading →
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