The Traveler’s Diary
One evening, while sharing the fireside with an elder and other young kids in what we then called our village, a village far from home though, I learned a saying that left me wiser than I was a minute before that. During this moonlight village gathering, the elders told us that children always dream big, not in their nights of sleep often but in their daylight imagination. At the tender age of 12, I was living that very dream, this was about six years after the story.
Today, I sit by the riverside, not knowing what to do, I am recollecting those memories of times past. I have gone on to complete primary school with flying colours, I have made the name I did not dream of and I have gained the fame I was not able to claim — this is because, for me, I was doing a normal thing- to learn and to do well in my lessons. This was thirty years after. What a past, if there is a younger me, I will still want to have this part of my past.
Here, with a smile, I am just enjoying the sunset, and all the funny memories I will never have the time to say to you, my children, or my grandchildren. You will accept that a whole portion of my past did not carry any pride except shame and regret. I am never proud of it and I wish my children and their children’s children will never repeat that horrible past of mine.
After this primary school achievement as some will call it, the dreams set in. These dreams pushed me further and told me that the world was that easy and everything was that possible. Have we had time enough, this wouldn’t be a problem. I will keep my hopes alive. But here I stood, as the sun set, so many years after additional accolades. Aging comes with its own worries and dreams. This time, I dream of having food and people to call mine.
In the wisest of thoughts, our lives on earth are limited. And, we have to worry, hurry and master the skills it takes to win. This is where some take the left with urgency or the right, more carefully with the slowest and keenest agility that one will have to tolerate. While many will accept that sometimes both the left and the right could lead in the same direction, many will assert that the end either within the human reign or the spirit reign seems two different. We then question and even ponder to accept the choices we made in time past. Why did I make this choice to be what I am now?
Some will blame Freedom. We all know how freedom is enjoyed by all. But this freedom must be accompanied by wisdom. If freedom was not a risk in itself, the word would not have meant any option for a man.
Gently, years have passed, and I have gone to places, leaning on every tree I could afford, visiting places, not I have chosen, but where God has chosen for me. Like this place, where I sit looking at strange birds, endless water, and vegetation so beautiful that the evidence of God's existence cannot be questioned. What remains questionable in my heart is, what am I doing here? Was this by choice or by destiny — maybe my granddaughter will have answers. For now, let me move on and enjoy my scenery.
On one of these trips, I realized, I was right up there on an elephant husk, enjoying nature and dining with those far more successful than I am. This is where the interesting thing happens when you are in the room as the youngest, smart as people will say but poor enough to thank God that it was only his grace and mercy that has brought you this far. This is my world. If I am really smart, why am I poor? If I am really poor, why am I in the richest of places? Those well placed in my land cannot easily afford this. The world is just a place of wonders, and I wonder what the heavens will be when we all meet there.
I have seen the rich suffering; I have seen the poor enjoying. This means to our creator, life by definition means something he designed beyond our understanding. We cannot even afford to question God. All we can say is thank you, God.
Those long-held imaginations of being a doctor, an engineer, and sometimes a musician gather themselves and cloud you like perches when you are younger and stronger. But with age, comes the time when we all seek to relieve ourselves of the impossible. We then try to see the world from our new lenses. Those long-held thoughts, and feelings, those childhood dreams well coined in the cerebrum, held and knitted just cannot go anywhere, but will now remain a reality that you cannot win the whole world.
As I sit there wondering what to do and what not to do, I realized we all dream. But at last, we must be prepared for a shift when the dream fails.
We must be able to accept when the dream redirects us. We must be ready to learn, down the lane, and follow those extra opportunities that we never dream of.
The true reality often sets in sometimes early enough or for many, too late to make a change. We all must muster courage, resilience, and patience because at long last, our dreams were just imaginations and the reality will set in as we grow and transform into adults — this present life I am living is the reality and here, I accept my fate.
