Rise with the Birds

It was a crummy evening yesterday when the car broke down and had to be towed away for repairs. As I scrambled to make alternative transport arrangements this morning, I ended up at the office long before the first rays of the morning sun turned the sky ablaze.

It's peaceful now. The air is fresh with a hint of the morning rain. I can even smell fragrance of the Water Jasmine around me.  In the skies, the birds are breezing through the morning air, chirping away like the world belongs to them.

It's really peaceful in the early morning hours before the mad rush of the work day overtakes us and stresses us out. I now understand better why Grandma would rise long before everyone to take her cup of tea outside in the morning chill - it's that hour when one can be most at peace with the world.

The Purple Flower revisited

Recalling a post from March 2014 when I first put a photo of this flower and a poem by Joseph Kolawole.

Strangely, while we know who wrote the poem, the name of the flower escapes us.

This appears to be Aystasia instrusa.

We pass by people everyday - on the streets, in the bus, on the train, in the store - and they are often faces without names, without life.

What does it cost to take a second to share a smile or a hello.

Life as with the flower at the top? Or life as with the flower at the bottom.

And the words of Etienne de Grellet echoes in my head, again.

Solemn Bird

A toucan, strange looking with with excessively large beak.

Yet beautiful in many ways.

How often do we judge others merely by the way they look?

How often do we judge ourselves?

Looking Back, Looking Forward

We are always looking back even as we are moving forward. The back is the past we leave behind - familiar settings, familiar people, familiar things.

Ahead of us lies the unknown, the uncertain, the fears.

White cliffs of Dover, in leaving England for an adventure ahead.

We also remember that in our cars, the windshield in front of us is a lot bigger than the rearview mirror we use to look behind us.

Then, let this be a reminder that while we will still look back, it's the front - the future - that beckons in our journeys.

The mysteries, the excitement, the adventure that awaits.