Blessing Around

 My mother always says that I am a people person, which I struggle with agreeing with because of how reserved I can be at times. Mothers are not usually wrong when it comes to their children, I can attest to this because I genuinely enjoy the company of companions and building rapport with acquaintances. So my life has not been one of me just being in a vacuum, and not having external forces being exerted on me. Some of these forces have been for good and some for evil if I can epically word it in that manner.  The thing about forces is that they bring change. You could be holding a sponge in your hand and squeeze the sponge and it'll deform accordingly. Everyday of my life especially where I am at the moment in time, I have observed that the only constant is change. This change comes from internal influences as well as external ones. I remember coming across something that said that we are made up of our five closest companions. Firstly, I was thinking how does on...

Practice makes perfect, those three words put together tend to hold water. I've learnt that it's never too late to get good at something. All you have to do is put in the time practicing. In my experience with tertiary education and, I guess, being an adult with a little bit of responsibilities to handle, I have had time to hone a skill. I have gotten pretty good at doubting myself.  I spend a lot of time in my head, and in my head things tend to get grossly exaggerated. So when I am faced with a challenge, I don't hesitate to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Perhaps it is because an engineering background has made me a firm believer in Murphy's law. The law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. This principle does help one to plan thoroughly, at the same time, it leads one to concentrate on all the holes in your logic that can cause things to fall apart.  Moving away from my hometown, and going away for university, has been s...

If you've been using social media for at least five years now, do you still remember your earlier photos and posts. I can think of a time when I was sixteen years old, and everyone was into filters and using augmented reality. Each time I look back on those photos at times, I almost gag at what was once so trendy online amongst my peers. It makes me want to wince, when I think about the faces I'd make in photos back then. What makes me so embarrassed by what seemed so cool? Often, I can get triggered to cringe at very unexpected moments. I could be washing dishes, or commuting home, then all of a sudden, I remember something I did whilst I was in primary school. It makes me wonder if there are any studies about why we hold on to embarrassing memories so well. The fact that I can remember an incident from 2015 so vividly, yet I can't remember what I had for lunch last Friday, bothers me in a way that words can not truly communicate.  There are instances, where th...

I'm sure by now you've noticed a habit that I have with most of the blog posts I've put up. Towards the end of a lot of the posts, I quote parts of the Bible. This is because I believe it to be the word of God and in its authority. I owe this all to having put my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and saviour, and in His death and resurrection. My coming to this decision of faith, is a story that I would like to share with you if you don't mind.  The story starts at my nativity, I was born in Zimbabwe, a country where about four fifths of the population is Christian. In my growing up, I was surrounded by Judaeo-Christian values and concepts. The values of the Bible were very much in the culture that I grew up in, as well as most of the education that I received. However, being surrounded by the culture did not equate to me being in the faith. There's a saying, "Just going to church makes you as much a Christian as going to MacDonald's makes you a ...

On average the human brain processes 6000 thoughts in a day. Depending on how much time you spend in your head, that number may seem very large or very small. Either way doing something around 6000 times a day is quite a significant, it makes me wonder how much of a workout our brains do daily. This number should surely be a rough estimate, when I'm taking an exam, at times it feels like the tally comes down, because I just can't remember how to apply some formulae.  In the words of Renée Descartes, "cogito ergo sum", (I think therefore I am). The famous mathematician could only find proof existence in that he was able to think. Thoughts are a way in which we process reality. If the sensory organs are hardware, then our thoughts are software. Perception is something that we pay close attention to, if we have negative thoughts towards a subject matter, we tend to drift away from the issue and the reverse is true when the polarity is changed.  I guess that...

With the influx of comic book movies in theatres over the last couple of years, I think we have all become familiar with the concept of a villain. In a lot of productions and epics, there tends to be at least two classes of characters. The protagonists that we love to see succeed, and the antagonists that we love to hate. It's almost formulaic at times the way, heroes and villains are portrayed that one does not even have to try to identify who is playing which role.  What makes a villain, villainous? There's always something that makes us dislikes the despicable. One of the first depictions of a villain, that I remember would probably be Scar from The Lion King. What made Scar the bad guy, was his hand in the death of Mufasa. The villain of the story is the one who brings suffering unto others, whether it's murder, theft, or betrayal. The commonality of it all is their ability to breakout hearts in someway or another.  When one does get to dig deepe...

 As a "young adult", one of the things I have been wanting to grow in, is responsibility. Mainly because I know that the older I get, the more my hands are going to be full of things to cater to. It only seems rational for one to want to be ready for the season, in which they will be in charge of leading and taking care of others, or any sort of oversight that will come in the future. It could be as big as being a chief decision maker in some financial organisation, or it could be making sure everyone has food at a wedding, the sky is the limit, I guess. I took it upon myself to take a step in being more responsible. It was around fathers' day. I put out on my social media that I had become a father. Yes, it shocked some friends, yes, I decided to get a pet plant to take care of.  Initially, I had thought to myself that if I could keep the plant alive until the end of the year, then perhaps I would eligible to get another plant. Fortunately, my first plant did...

There's this scene amongst the excess amount of comedy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's when Peter Quill is asking where Gamora is, and Tony Stark retorts, "Yeah, I'll do you one better, who is Gamora?". To which Drax chimes in "I'll do you one better why is Gamora?". The most important question they don't ask is how is Gamora. It seems like no one cares to know Gamora feels. Often we ask each other about, what activities we're engaged in, and not so much about how we are feeling. Watching infants process emotions has always fascinated me. Whenever a baby is hungry it cries, when it misses a parent it cries, when it needs a diaper change it cries. Babies cry a lot, but a lot they're experiencing new emotions and feelings a lot. I can't remember the first time I felt sad, but I do know there was a first time, and I probably cried. The first time we feel something, it always turns out to be monumental. Some...

Tackling this issue is going to be tricky. I already tried checking wikiHow, and there are no articles with the same title as this blog post. In a world, that is so brutal at times, we all need somebody to lean on. Due to the essence of us being social creatures. You'll find that after a hard day, a phonecall or a message from a dear one can lift your spirits, in a way that almost seems like sorcery. Join me as I delve into the mystical arts of checking up on a friend.  I tried doing some research about the matter at hand. The results were quite interesting,to say the least. When it comes to checking up on a companion, there is not a one size fits all way to go about it. You have to be particular about the person, what dictates the way you approach them can be the kind of relationship you have. Depending upon the dynamic you have established, you can strategise as to how to reach out to the friend. For some, a text message would be enough, for others having a meal toget...

So, here's the first question of this blog post. Who is  your best friend in the world, dare I say, or in the universe?I know you have your answer, for some of you, you may not have the privilege to access me and tell me who that person may be. Therefore, I shall be sharing my answer to that question. Now, if you know me personally, and we're close enough for you to think that I'll mention your name. You are not far from the truth. If you refer to me as a best friend, I probably do the same. However, to remain politically correct, my best friend is my mother. My justification is that she's known me far much longer than anyone else, and much more than ninety eight percent of people do. My apologies to anyone disappointed in not being mentioned as my answer. You can always challenge my statement if you feel the need.  So hopefully by now we've established that we all have a very close friend in our lives. What's so special about best friends? I think o...

 I remember a conversation I was having with a friend. He was sharing his woes from the office with me. In particular, his grumbling was about a coworker of his. The said coworker was described to be a jerk, to remedy the pain that the coworker often inflicted, my friend would just block out most of the mean comments that the coworker would pass. My friend used a very interesting metaphor to describe it, the image used was that words are like birds, and their meanings are like the wings of the bird. If you take away the meaning behind the words, the bird becomes flightless and harmless. This had me thinking about words and the impact that they have. The concept of a word is one that is quite peculiar. Words are basically sounds that we make, that we have assigned meaning to. Yet we can see how these sounds shape our realities and relationships on such a large scale. At the right time a kind word can change your mood entirely, on the flip-side, some vulgarity because of ...

I think I am one of the least aggressive persons I know. I doubt I could count in one hand any scuffles I have had, that are still in memory. In terms of real life battle experience, I still very much am a novice, and I have no hopes of improving in that regard. At times, I just find myself in frustration because I can never truly find it within me, to erupt at poor service delivery at  a restaurant, or even complaining with unction for a just cause. It leads me to question up to what extent, can I remain mild mannered without it being unhealthy. It is necessary to throw a punch in order to preserve peace and progress. I know that there comes a time, where there is no other way to resolve a matter, other than having  a confrontation of sorts. I get so nervous to confront people about stuff. I usually try to have a mental three strike system, but that does nktwork well because  I am a very lenient umpire, three strikes often increases to four or five or six, al...

  Recently, I drove my mother to despair. I told that I was planning on getting a tattoo, a smiley face on my toe. She was not having any of it. Despite being an adult, I guess I will not stop being my mother's child. I decided not to get my toe inked, because the cost of my mother going through a gloomy episode is not worth any tattoo. After I had the conversation with her, I kept replaying what she was saying in my head, to pick out what exactly it was that irked her out about the idea. The major reason came out to be the permanence of the ink on my skin. It's a procedure that once it's finished it's almost irreversible. Then, that had me thinking about what else we go through, that is irrevocable once we have gone through it. It is not always a process with physical ramifications, at times the effects could be mental or emotional or spiritual.  The commonality in a lot of decisions is time, a very natural occurrence in our everyday existence. Time moves l...