LESSONS FROM THE STREETS

For the couple of months I have been in absentia, life has been intriguing. So much has happened in such a short time, and life has given me plenty lessons. Buried in this six feet hole of experience, I managed to resurrect better and smarter, expectant of less, yet giving of more, thus I share my lessons from the streets. My work entails empowering university students with an opportunity to serve society. Through this just cause, we mentor street kids who are open to rehabilitation. The humbling encounters starts here.  

Its the middle of night, and your father has left you to sleep. Six hours earlier, he had scorned you for loosing his bicycle without a beating, which, with you being an 11 year old, was easily robbed off by a group of 10 , rowdy 20 to 25 year old boys. As the sleep creeps in gently, and you toss and turn in oblivion, the lash of the belt takes your skin hostage, making you wail in pain and even you pee yourself. Your body is in total shock. Out the off the door you find your way, into the midnight light, to start a homeless life...

Just twelve years old, and you simply find it unfit to wear a shirt that is not long sleeved. Scars of burns by a hot knife, inflicted on you by your mother, are screaming truths of the torture you went through. Reason being, you came back home without change. Whether it was robbed of you, and you are okay, got lost while you were walking home is no excuse to your avail..Thief becomes your birth right, and pain escorts it.   

With many more tales of grief, which I choose not delve into, I seek to draw lessons of life and love from them and share my two cents. 

With all the cruelty these children face at a tender age, they somehow manage to find a way through life and somewhat be optimistic. Secondly, whenever we loose loved ones, we get torn apart, knowing we shall never manage to see them again. The pain slowly fades away, and we live our normal lives again, only to remember them once a year. Now, what I find interesting, is why we give too much control of our lives to those who hurt us, yet still are breathing. Yep, our Exs. They scare us from loving again, scare us from trusting again, at times making us miss chances in life that only knock once. They make us look down upon ourselves, and feel sorry for ourselves, feel ashamed to being who we are etc.. If we are on the wrong, then an array of apologies we send, but somehow, they will always find a way of clinging the mistake to you, like a shadow. Bullcrap to that!!

That it hurts when you err someone you love, willingly or not, or are hurt by the same, is perfectly human. Perfection is relationships is a façade. My problem though is when we  cling to the pas or the pain, letting your present be torched up, smoking away your future. What the kids taught me plain and simply is that, life has to much to offer to be left clinging on to straws, yet you were never meant to drown. Simply leave the straw and start swimming, cause you may find your way on to an island, hehe. Therefore, be upbeat about life, beat the crap out of clinging straws, and caress the waters of life with gentle strokes onto peace and paradise. 

Simply don't be expectant of a thank you after doing good, or expecting forgiveness in the equal measure you give it. Life is much simpler and interesting, whenever you get surprised by the kindness of man, than when you get down trodden by the cruelty in people's acts, leashed onto high expectations. I dare not say be hopeless, but simply state, be hopeful, be hopeful to the one person you can control. You. The young boys, have faced life's wrath, being chased away by the same people who teamed up to bring them to earth. Harsher than the loved you met. That they can spare time for prayer, for a hearty laugh, and give thanks, gives me more than 1000 reasons to keep my faith buzzing and be the best I can be. 

Wishing you all an insightful weekend, full of moving on, than clinging ons!!! Yet I know, it is easier said than done, but fact has it, its not impossible.!