It’s 3 am now and Binyavanga Wainaina’s 'One Day I Will Write About This Place' is the last straw I clutch at to attend to my now undeviating inquietude. I have now lost count of the times I’ve read the book but power to that refined man who has been my saving grace through myriads of rock bottoms.
The ever knocking all time lows have lately had me mulling over all things life. Anxiety always lurking, waiting to pounce on you once the odds are in its favor. What are the joys of life? Do you really want life to pass you by, just like that? Surely, no breathing of common wind should be able to forget you once all this is over. Ah well there’s just this world, then the next and then all our troubles will be over right?
After long and deep thoughts, tossing and turning, I decide to create a personal guide on how to navigate through this life, my life. Calling it a guide really is dramatic since it only has one ‘tip’- living in the moment.
So I set my sights on doing this and suddenly I start to hold dear the minutiae in my milieu.
My Grandfather’s habitual morning and evening euphonic hums and chants have become more hypnotic. He who knows how to build people, structures and lives.
Seven hours on call with my precious something feel like building a stairway to the stars, taking my mind with me. They are a friend of my mind.
The sincere 5 minutes and sometimes hours long bedside or couch conversations with my cousin have become more fulfilling. Reassuring even.
Yagazie Emezi’s sublime photographic work- full of quality, excellence and worthy of fame has grown more striking.
Eloghosa Osunde’s poetry now seems to carry an unmatched intensity and sensation.
Wambui Kamiru’s art feels more profound than ever.
Capturing people, things and emotions through my mind and photographs has become more sentimental, nostalgic…elating.
So we may not have a manual on how to keep body and soul together. No GPS to guide us as we sail across the waves that is life but maybe living in the moment is the optimal cheat code.
Who knows? Maybe living in the moment is you ignoring that lulling law school book today and reading something soulful. Well unless you have an exam tomorrow.
Time by itself means nothing no matter how fast it moves unless we give it something to carry for us. Something to value because it is such a precious vehicle. — Ama Ata Aidoo
