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into the wind

Often I hear: Go with the flow. Go with the stream. Go with the wind, where it will take you. Jump into the deep end. Go, go, go.
Then I wondered.
Ever seen an aeroplane take off? Ever looked at a windsock indicating the direction of the wind?
They never take off with the wind. It’s always into the wind. Of course there are aerodynamic reasons.
Wind coming from the front over the wing lifts the plane. A headwind therefore facilitates the take off and shortens the runway required to get into the air. Wind from the back is only good when we are up there. On the ground it has a negative effect on our ability to lift off. Once up there then a tailwind pushes us along and saves us fuel and time, increasing our speed without much effort from our behalf.
What if we use that example for our life.
Just going with the wind or jumping into the stream tears us along at a rate of knots. We don’t lift off. We tumble, sink, drown, crash. The fewest of us have enough runway or smooth waters to eventually gain some lift.
We want to gain lift in our life. We are here to make life work out for us.
Why not use the wind blowing in our life and turn into it head-on? Instead of running with it lets utilise it to get off the ground, to get lift-off, to gain much needed perspective, height and clarity and then once we are in control and stabilised and know exactly what we want, turn with the wind and zoom towards our dreams. A little pressure from the front could be quite beneficial to get us going. I for one love facing into the wind. I will be my own aeroplane and pilot it to the destination of my choice.

 

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and then Nothing again

When there is nothing there is actually a lot of it. There is all your life burdening down on you: Nothing happens. Nothing moves. Nothing in your bank account. Nothing you can do, – or so you think. That’s where many of us go wrong. If we would just do what we have to do to the best of our ability that nothing-ness would fill with something that makes us feel good. It takes our mind off the grind when we do something. The better we do something the better the nothing-ness fills with something. If you do a half-a-job you get nothing filled with half of something. And when our mind is off the grind then there is nothing and that is good because now it can fill with something. We should always keep something in the back of our mind. Something we really like; a dream; a picture of something that fills us with joy; an accomplishment. Yeah, let’s see the finished product and not the thousand steps it takes to get there. Each of those steps well done will bring joy when we see the end result. And if you think that you don’t know how to do something that you think you should do, don’t think again, just get started, the solutions and steps required will reveal themselves. It’s one thing going through everything in your mind, meticulous step by step, it’s another when we get going because the universe rewards action. Action makes waves. Thoughts ignite action. Both are key.

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rainy season starting

Sooo much water everywhere…not far from Lake Tanganyika
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Close to the source of the Kalungwishi river, feeder to the spectacular Lumangwe and Kabweluma Falls

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Well it’s drying time again I have to air you…this time in Kasanka

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There is something captivating about the rainy season. Something so unbelievable when one has travelled during the dry and dusty winter. It is undoubtedly the most beautiful time of year when nature is so alive with variety and beauty that you are stumped to silence.

You also get wet. Oh boy do you get wet. And muddy. And your vehicle will never be the same again. And everything you ever owned is damp. And there are leaks and drips were never leaks and drips have ever been before. There are so many shades of green you’d think green couldn’t be any greener. Clouds don’t just cover the sky they cover your whole universe and they are so majestic you feel so honoured by their presence even if they bring more rain. And roads are rivulets and and when the sun peeps out you think a miracle has happened.

Forget about the hardship. Forget about wearing shoes. Run around in swimming trunks and windbreaker and hat. Have ten towels close by because each is more wet than the other no matter which one you take. So what! Have you ever experienced something like that? Africa in the rainy season blows various circuits in your brain. It’s something we don’t usually do but we should. The beauty about those latitudes is that it doesn’t get that cold with the rain, still, find your driest wet jacket with hoody for extra comfort. Oh yes, don’t even think of anything less than Mud Terrain tires, diff locks on both axles and a serious winch and umbrellas, biscuits and hot coffee.

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true Africa beating

Your 4×4 is standing and gathering dust. Your heart is restless. The you hear about Zambia.

Zambia is the forest butterfly of Africa. A magnificent and beautiful country with the friendliest, peaceful people in Africa.

There’s been no civil war, uprising or fighting in a century.

Zambia_National_Parks_Map

Its geographic shape looks like a butterfly and only the DRC, Sudan and Angola have more forest, as referenced here. Zambia has twenty national parks, marked in green on the map, of which Kafue National Park to the left is by far the largest with 22k Square kilometres.
Of the twenty parks ten have management structures of various forms and the rest are gems waiting to be saved.

When you yearn for Africa the Kafue answers.

The Kafue is also Zambia’s oldest park. It still lacks somewhat in infrastructure  to other parks and the roads suggest a robust and four-wheel drive vehicle. This is of course all the more attractive for those escaping from tourist spots and civilisation in general, wishing to experience the raw pulse of Africa. Large unexplored tracts of virgin bush with a huge diversity in bird and wildlife put it on the list of ‘must experience’ places in Africa. It is a difficult place to navigate in the rainy season with black cotton soil, lots of water and most camps closed.

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seeds of chaos

As long as we sow the seeds of war, – violent abuse and hate, and create abject poverty, – because of greed, power-lust and blinding self-righteousness, – we feed the hunger of the evil monster and reap the chaos.
Hardly do we have to point fingers and mention names of individuals, leaders and countries. We know which ones to send to another planet given the chance, so that we can live prosperous and peaceful lives without their distorted interference.

I have to refer to one laureates’ acceptance speech at a well known banquet a few years ago:
“we will not eradicate violent conflict in our life times”
“the imperfections of man”
“our limits of reason”
“we lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals we fight to defend.”

Is there then a reason for leading a ‘just war?’

That the world can be changed by one individual is unlikely. That it can shift from its apparent inertia by many that are moral however, is possible.

“Our moral compass must be love.”
~Marthin Luther King Jr~

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arrest the dream

You wake up at 0230.
A bird is persistently making the same call and you are as awake as if you had never slept. You experience none of the grogginess that often follows sleep.

It was a dream that brought you to the surface and you just manage to catch the tail-end of the story, but then it’s gone. No matter how hard you try the dream got vaguer by the second. As it vanishes  it crystallises for a moment into an idea. Something quite clear. Something you have to do. But even that vanishes if you can’t arrest it. If you don’t catch that either then you’ve lost two important messages that were prioritised above your sleep.

You lie there stumped. A good start to the day.

If you could only press record when that happens, like tapping the screen of your mobile twice when it is set to ‘sleep mode,’ and then talk as fast as you can explaining the dream, apologising to your partner who is either blissfully unaware of your ordeal or used to the script already.

Arrest the dream. Create a picture. Bring it vibrantly to life. Set the background of the canvas of your new day with it.

Whatever you have to do, keep the dream alive.

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nothing to something

Call me Nothing.

I sell nothing, because nothing is all I can think of.

In any case I have tried to come up with an idea what to sell you and I can only come up with nothing and that’s why you get nothing, – nothing at all.

Believe me that I’ve boxed, packaged, wrapped, canned, and refrigerated nothing, just for you. I can even shrink it or expand it to your liking, or make it disappear into nothing.

I have gazillion tons of nothing, so much of it that it has warped my mind, as you can see. To say I am a Trillionaire of nothing is being humble.

My nothing is not made in China and not even in Germany or the US. I am the sole proud manufacturer of an incredible, unbelievable amount of nothing. I have factories of nothing producing so much of nothing with such astonishing ferocity that nothing can stop me. I go to bed with nothing and miraculously wake up with even more of nothing. I am now giving nothing away entirely for nothing to make space for more nothing.

I pay with nothing, get bags full of nothing, have abundant nothing, am really nothing and do absolutely nothing for nothing. If I wouldn’t have nothing to hold on to I’d drown in nothing.

I have gift vouchers of nothing and cards wishing you nothing. I have whole showroom floors full of my latest models of nothing. Two wheeled super-blitz specimens with speeds that only nothing can touch; four wheeled ones that stop at nothing and winged ones with jets that disappear into nothing. My gorgeous fashion statements are made of purest, organic nothing and my perfumes and cosmetics are of the finest, sweetest smelling nothing that nothing even gets half close to. I use the latest nothing with no keyboard or screen connecting to nothing so I can finally talk to you about nothing.

Hell, without nothing I’d be nothing.

I have learned from the grand masters to care for nothing and I don’t give a continental nothing about nothing’s tail of nothing.

The beauty about nothing is that you get it if you want it or not for nothing. The real, true guarantee of nothing however is that it will give you nothing for nothing without any argument, persistently and all the time.

There is such astounding wisdom in an uncluttered mind filled with nothing. It teaches that you pretty much need nothing to connect into the source of nothing. There is nothing you can do about nothing, try as you may, unless you thinking about something. Nothing exists gloriously in being simply and unadulterated nothing.

Nothing is singularly unique in that it exists forever. Everything else, you might have noticed, expires and perishes with unwavering predictability. And, – you don’t even have to want nothing. It comes part and parcel with you. As soon as you become (aware) you notice that nothing is all around. You can’t monetize it either or put a price on it.

Yes, I could sell you a jar of nothing or a watch that shows nothing simply to make you aware of nothing in case you forgot nothing. But we can’t understand nothing, that’s why we constantly and creatively define it into something which eventually becomes nothing again. We always think we should fill the nothing and convert it or change it because it surely can’t be nothing even though we move around in nothing all day long, – our whole life long.

Imagine, huh, twist your mind a little, if we would believe that Nothing is the source of everything we ever wanted. Just take nothing and add, well, – no not water, – just add your thought and wallah. “Wallah what,” you say perplexed?  “Wallah, you created something!” And no matter how much of nothing we use up, the reservoir of Nothing is unaffected. Nothing is limitless and we are seriously challenged to understand that. To us most everything is finite, right? Maybe pi (3.14159 ~) isn’t, but who cares about that ’cause everything else runs out or comes to an (abrupt) end. Actually, coming to think of it we understand nothing about Nothing.

Maintaining the momentum on Nothing we will eventually come upon Something. Be it a him or a her or a thing. To us that something could very well become the most important and precious thing in our lives. Something very well worth all of our nothing.

Out of nothing…

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decadence

Oh man it’s spring in Africa. It’s hot again and the garden is full of greens and colour.

Spring brings with it Thirst among many other, dare I whisper, ‘pleasurable things’ – after the dry winter eternity of about three months of pure cloudless sunshine.

Decadence now stares me in the face every time I open the fridge and see another ice-cold bottle of white wine as if to say, “You are complaining about your life bru?”

“Brother, ‘No,’ I have converted Nothing into gratitude and not a syllable of moan shall cross my lips ever again!”