Keep speaking up without fear
Someday someone'll beyond hear
Keep championing for change
*Albeit it does you estrange

A time comes in your life when you finally get it. When in the midst of all your fears and insanity you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out ENOUGH!  Enough fighting and crying or struggling to hold on and, like a child quieting down after a blind tantrum, your sobs begin to subside, you shudder once or twice, you blink back your tears and through a mantle of wet lashes you begin to look at the world through new eyes.  


This is your awakening.  You realize that its time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon.  You come to terms with the fact the he is not Prince Charming and you are not Cinderella and that in the real world there arent always fairy tale endings (or beginnings for that matter).  And that any guarantee of happily ever after must begin with you, and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.


You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect, and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of who or what you are and its OK.  (They are entitled to their own views and opinions.)  And you learn the importance of loving and championing yourself, and in the process a sense of newly found confidence is born of self-approval.


You stop whining and blaming other people for the things they did to you (or didnt do for you) and you realize the only thing you can count on is the unexpected.  You learn that not everyone will always be there for you, and that its not always about you.  So, you learn to take care of yourself and in the process a sense of safety and security is born of self-reliance.  


You stop judging and pointing fingers, and you begin to accept people as they are, and to over look their shortcomings and human frailties and in the process a sense of peace and contentment is born of forgiveness.


You realize that much of the way you view yourself, and the world around you, is a result of all the messages and opinions that have been ingrained into your psyche.  And you begin to sift through all the junk youve been fed about how you should behave, how you should look, how much you shouldnt weigh, what you should wear, where you should shop, what you should drive, how and where you should live, what you should do for a living, who you should sleep with, who you should marry, what you should expect of a marriage, the importance of having and raising children, or what you owe your parents.


You learn to open up to new worlds and different points of view.  And you begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand for.  


You learn the difference between wanting and needing, and you begin to discard the doctrines and values youve outgrown, or should never have bought into to begin with, and in the process you learn to go with your instincts.  You learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility, and the importance of setting boundaries and learning to say NO.  You learn the only cross to bear is the one you choose to carry, and that martyrs get burned at the stake.


Then you learn about love.  Romantic love and familial love.  How to love, how much to give in love, when to stop giving, and when to walk away.  You learn not to project your needs or your feelings onto a relationship.  You learn that you will not be more beautiful, more intelligent, more lovable, or important because of the man on your arm or the child that bears your name.  


You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would have them be.  You stop trying to control people, situations, and outcomes.  You learn that just as people grow and change, so it is with love.  And you learn that you dont have the right to demand love on your terms just to make you happy.  And, you learn that ALONE does not mean lonely.


And you look in the mirror and come to terms with the fact that you will never be a size 5 or a perfect 10 and you stop trying to compete with the image inside your head and agonizing over how you stack up.  You also stop working so hard at putting feelings aside, smoothing things over, and ignoring your needs.


You learn that feelings of entitlement are perfectly OK . . . and that it is your right to want things that you want.  And that sometimes it is necessary to make demands.  You come to the realization that you deserve to be treated with love, kindness, sensitivity, and respect and you will not settle for less.  And you allow only the hands of a lover who cherishes you, to glorify you with his touch.  And in the process you internalize the meaning of self-respect.  


And you learn that your body really is your temple.  And you begin eating a balanced diet, drinking more water, and taking more time to exercise.  You learn that fatigue diminishes the spirit and can create doubt and fear, so you take more time to rest.  And, just as food fuels the body, laughter fuels our soul, so you take more time to laugh and to play.


You learn that, for the most part, in life you get what you believe you deserve.  And that much of life is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for, and that wishing for something to happen is different from working toward making it happen.  More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success, you need direction, discipline, and perseverance.


You also learn that no one can do it all alone and its OK to risk asking for help.  You learn that the only thing you must truly fear is the great robber baron of all time:  FEAR itself.  You learn to step right into and through your fears, because you know that whatever happens you can handle it, and to give into fear is to give away the right to live life on your terms.


You learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom.  You learn that life isnt always fair, you dont always get what you think you deserve, and that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people.  On these occasions you learn not to personalize things.  You learn that God isnt punishing you or failing to answer your prayers.  Its just life happening.  And you learn to deal with evil in its most primal state the ego.


You learn that negative feelings such as anger, envy, and resentment must be understood and redirected, or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you.


You learn to admit when you are wrong and to build bridges instead of walls.  You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the simple things we take for granted, things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a long hot shower.  Slowly, you begin to take responsibility for yourself, by yourself, and you try to make yourself a promise to never betray yourself and to never ever settle for less than your hearts desire.  And you hang a wind chime outside your window so you can listen to the wind.  And you make it a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting, and to stay open to every wonderful possibility.


Finally, with courage in your heart and with God by your side, you take a stand, you take a deep breath, and you begin to design the life you want to live as best as you can

THIS YEAR 2013; IS THE YEAR OF GREAT DEATHS


Alexander K Opicho
(Eldoret, Kenya; [email protected])


This year alone world society has lost more that ten great intellectual and political leaders. They have been lost to death in a deeply wounding manner. Human society has indeed been robbed. It is so sad. Three of the leaders have been Nobel laureates and the rest are leaders of intellectual, moral, political and spiritual stature in their respective capacities.
It began without any stampede in early part of the year some where March when Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian and Francis Davis Imbuga a Kenyan, both succumbed to early deaths caused by stroke. Rendering not only the citizens of world of literature, but also African society as well as global intellectual communities to the most desperate bereavement. Thereafter, within short while of the subsequent days, The Venezuelans president and Marxist intellectual, Hugo Chavez also succumbed to death caused by throat cancer. Even though the Pravda, the daily circulating paper of Russia contended that Chavez was poisoned; it is dismissible as only a Russian stand attributed to ideological hangover, because the Pravda also made similar allegations in relation to deaths of Yasser Arafat, Pablo Neruda and Frantz Omar Fanon, but it did not go a head to establish the factuality of this very allegations.
What we know is that human life is in most cases contested for by the three spiritual forces of fortune, fate and death. As decried William Shakespeare in his Romeo and Juliet. This time round in the year 2013, the angel of death has dominantly reigned with its untimely consequences in form of fangled early death of our leaders. Herman Melville will remain classical in his concern in the Moby **** about death that; O death! O death! Why are you untimely?  
Sadder is when the Al shabab terrorists killed the Ghanaian born global literary citizen Kofi Owonor. Kofi Owonor the poet and author of This world my brother was among the people killed in Nairobi during the terrorist attack at the Westgate mall. Of course he had come to Kenya to celebrate in literary festival organised by a society of publishers in Nairobi. This is an eventuality of some month ago. In September 2013, the Irish born literary Nobel prize poet; Heaney Seamus died. He died prematurely when the world society most needed his service to literature and his literary service to human society.
A couple of some weeks ago again the world loosed two prominent artists, political leaders, human rights crusaders and intellectuals. These are none other than Doris May Lessing and Tabuley Rosseuru. Lessing was a white African living in London, literature Nobel laureate and a feminist as well as an anti apartheid crusader. She is known for her firm stand against communist utopia, championing for the  courses against dehumanizing  human behaviors like racisms , but mostly Lessing is known for  her  great literary works like ;the grass is singing, Golden Note book, Dann and Mara as well as so many other works. Whereas Tabuley was an African Congolese , a musician , a businessman , once a husband to Africa’s most beautiful songstress Bellia Belle. He was the composer and the vocalist of African Rumba music. His song Bina Mudan which we in Africa always pronounce as Simbukinya was actually an artistic and cultural bombshell. Tabuley has been a politician, who enjoyed a gubernatorial position of the city of Kinshasa for ten years (two terms).
Most disastrous is the currently trial-some moment for the world community as they all commissarriate the death of Nelson Mandela.Mandella died early decemder 2013 at his home in the Johannesburg city of South Africa. The death of Mandela is an open sore to the society. It is a window for social, political, intellectual and family abyss in Africa. It is indeed a sad moment. But what can we do? For it has already happened. We can only swim in the consolation inherent the wisdom of the Babukusu people found in the western part of Kenya that; Mis-brewed wine behooves volunteer carousers. And truly, I have personally joined the world community to commit a poetical kamikaze in volunteering to drink this sour wine of humanity .May god give us and our leaders in their diverse capacities long live. Amen.