Of Questions and Quests

I want to question questions

I want to quest for answers

But I have a dilemma 

I am stuck in a crevice

If I ask I am “not knowing”

If I don’t ask I am a “moron”

What will it take but courage

I banish “peoples thoughts” so I focus on mine

Why do you think your opinion is better than mine?

Why do you feel my questions are not worth asking?

Why do you think “questions are not allowed”?

Who made you arbiter of good and bad?

The world was founded on questions and questing 

Human beings aspire based on questions and questing

Your world is narrowed without question and questing

If you stop me from asking then you stop yourself from learning

What is life if we cannot learn

Question …the sharp needle that wakes sleeping monsters

The fire that razes households

Also the “thesis” that describes us.

The canvas on which we are remembered

Questions and questing

The curious silence that greets autocracy

The ever present invitation of a theocracy

Questions don’t mean doubt

Questions don’t mean opposition

If I don’t ask my questions I will be ignorant but your life view will remain parochial.

Addiction to “noise”

From where I am writing, today is a Sunday (a holy day for Christians) and a hallmark of the day will be going to church for service. The service will encourage people to reflect and introspect on their lives and see how to improve and be better.

But in today’s world listening to oneself has become almost frightening. From Twitter to Facebook , from Snapchat to Instagram , from WhatsApp to Viber we try as much as possible to keep our minds engaged in everything but ourselves. If internet goes down for a minute in your vicinity it will be apocalyptic, if you can’t check your mails for a day, then the world must have ended, if there are no Facebook updates in 5mins then something must be wrong. 

We spend a lot of time connected to virtual reality but disconnected from the reality of our lives.it’s almost like we crave the “noise” so that we may be distracted from the need for reflection and introspection.

If the networks are down we get fixated on the television or the radio or games. When do we stop and listen to ourselves think plan and analyse. 

When was the last time you just sat down and saw the sunset or the sunrise and really marvel at its elegance, when was it you last took a drive just to see the countryside or you just sat with your child to play and tell stories. When last did you have a face to face conversation with your friends that didn’t involve Skype or messenger.

The internet( and technology) has made social interaction simple and extremely easy but it shouldn’t take away from us human and humane interaction, it shouldn’t take the place of self interaction and by all things good it shouldn’t  be a distraction from hearing yourself think.

So take a challenge and shut down all social media and all media for an hour and see if you still recognize the voice of your lonely self.

©Frañcois 

Failure as a stage of success

We live in a world that glorifies success and rightly so. We celebrate the successful and despise the failures, success stories become “motivational” speeches on how to “make it” in life. The successful become celebrities and famous, be it in politics or film ,in industry or science we make celebrities out of those who have achieved.

Now there is nothing wrong in that, except that in celebrating a point in a journey we forget and unconsciously neglect the whole journey. So those who fail amount to nothing, are not reckoned with are despised and  not allowed to talk.

We have naively chosen to forget that success is neither spontaneous nor instantaneous. There is no “big break”, no ” epiphany”, rather success is a  process at the beginning of which you will almost certainly find failure.

The enigma of the Living, is that he who lives has to fail in other to succeed. By trying and failing, you have become a little bit more successful than you were before you failed.

Why?

For every attempt you make to succeed, you break down barriers and obstacles first in your own mind before you go ahead to make an outward effort to be successful. That’s a measure of success; believing that you are more than what you see and striving for greater things.

The problem with failing is not in its nature but in its interpretation. The individual who fails loses self esteem , becomes discouraged, gives up at times , becomes frustrated at other times. But it is in those who see failure as a learning experience and a spring board to try again that you glimpse the power of failure to push , to encourage to motivate to strive more to work harder. It is all because they understand failure not to be the end but a point in the journey just like success ddoes

Some people fail to succeed so they may end up valuing the success more, others succeed without failing they may despise failure and think success is a right, while still some may succeed just to fail ,when they find success again they are wiser and better understand that life is full of points but each stop doesn’t define the journey only the end does.

It is said that the coward dies a thousand times before his death, but I say  the one who fails succedes a thousand times before his triumph.

®Fr

Living in the end

An end is a necessity to a beginning

The end is an absolute for every life
For the unwise the knowledge creates fright.

For the sage, it mandates circumspection.

If I know tomorrow will be “the end”…..

Will I do anything different?

Will I sit and think of things I could have done better?

Or would I go on like, I have always been ready?

The end here is a beginning somewhere.

So it’s the preparation for a journey.

It’s an act of standing at the edge and looking back….

You mourn your mistakes and celebrate your right deeds.

You appreciate love, lost and gained.

The end is not surprised, but we always act as if it is.

If we learn not from the constancy of an end, then we gain not from knowing there is an end.

The end, known from the beginning….

Should make us leave better.

Our lives today should constantly outshine yesterday’s.

In the end we all come to an end.

It shouldn’t scare you but should make you stronger.

The Joy of Tomorrow.

The page says “share your story here”, so this is my story…..

I was born on the day world war 1 began, I came out of the womb to the smell of gunpowder and smoke, to the shout of soldiers and the cry of the dying. I was thrown into a place that was supposed to be better, but was at that moment at its worst or so I thought.

I grew up with men without limbs as evidence of our greed and hatred for each other. I saw men blind from shrapnel but can still see the human heart perfectly.

I did not see war, I lived war. I have seen many wars including 2 global (world) wars. I have seen men choose hatred,fear, paranoia and selfishness over the inherent good that is in all of us.

But though my life was birthed in war and forged in conflict I have never lost hope ,” that the good in each of us will always triumph over the bad”.

And that’s what has kept me going all these years, the hope of a GOOD TOMORROW.

It makes me go through life’s challenges with courage and plough through my obstacles with strength. It encourages me to look forward and not backwards, to hold on to the future and not yesterday.

The belief that each of us has an infinite capacity for good keeps me on the road of hope and on this pilgrims journey.

It makes me not be surprised by the warmongering in our nations and our families but to look out for that sliver of hope in the midst of the chaos.

Like the picture of the 5yr old boy shielding his sister from gunfire in Iraq or the picture of the stunned boy rescued from a bomb attack in Syria. Glimmers of the humanity we desperately seek to diminish today.

And so I call on fellow men and women who are tired of “the fallen nature of man” to give a hand in this new revival, to breathe new life and resurrect our fallen nature, to once again make us look forward to “the joy of tomorrow”.

This is a mixture of fiction and reality tailored to give us hope and banish despair.

©Fr

Word Salad

I could make this poetic and interesting.But I don’t want to.As rambling and uncoordinated as it is, it will sure give you a picture of the mind that is not at peace.

Do I need to do bad to achieve good?

Do I need to create darkness to make light?

If I believe in God and his awesome power, am I convinced that He cannot do Good all by himself? So much so that He needs to do good thru the avenue of evil.

If I believe in God’s time being the best, does it make sense that I would seek to run faster than him? That I would follow short cuts to a place that he may or may not have said I will eventually get to?

If I believe His plans for me are better than any I can ever have for myself, then why am I planning to take a path other than his?

It is all rambling and mumbling. But at the end of the road we need to know what is morality? What is principle? What does it mean to take a stand? 

I am convinced that to stand with God is not to guarantee success and victory in the battles of this world. That is why Job will say “though he slay me yet will I trust him” or the three Jews thrown in  to the burning furnace will say “Our God will save us, but even if He does not, we will not worship your image”.

I might be too strict with myself, but I know for a fact that God doesn’t need to create bad before he can create good. He can do good all by himself.

So this is where I make my stand today; ” even if I don’t get that good I yearn for, I will not do wrong or take a short cut to get it”.

Crazy….?  God help me.

©Fr.

Book Prime

After a long period of study and reflection finally I have a book out. It is my contribution to the growth of the Catholic faith and an invitation to Christians to see God in a newer and better light.

The book can be found here 

The Dilemma of waiting

The dog…. O the dog…
You are the symbol of waiting.

They said you ate the fat bone
But only because you waited.

And I dare ask O dog

Is it because other dogs were blind?
Or because they were generous?

Patience is not complacency
Waiting responsibly is patience.

When you till the ground and sow
Then you wait for the harvest.

When you do the needful
Then you wait for success.

The “patient dog” has long been misunderstood.

He has been labelled patient
But could have been the runt of the litter.

To wait or not
To be patient or not

That’s the dilemma of today
The tragedy of the choice.

©Fr

The Triumph of Hope

I was mildly hopeful
I believed but not totally
I hoped I will be a success
But I also felt I might fail.

I looked to my future
And I saw reason to hope
But I also saw many reasons to doubt
I saw tomorrow but I also saw yesterday.

I envisioned victory
But fear fought for a foothold
I knew the battle and the terrain
But I didn’t know if I was strong enough.

Then came Words…words…words….
They gave strength to my vision
Wings to my dreams
They taught me victory before the fight.

Then I knew….
Though fear be present
And doubt  not dissolve
Hope will triumph over all.

©Fr

My continuing evolution

Yesterday, I was a child
Today I am a boy
Tomorrow I will be a man

Yesterday I was a teen
Today I am an adult
Tomorrow I will be an elder

Yesterday I was a son
Today I am a Father
Tomorrow I will be a grand pa

©Fr