This War We Fight by Common

Mom

There comes a time in a man's life when you have to decide what is most important to you. 

I have come to realize that spending time with my mom makes me the happiest.  When I'm with my mom, I can talk to her about anything. I can talk to her about what I ate, what I want and my aspirations in life. I've come to realize that I appreciate her so much that I don't think I can do anything without consulting her or anything. We take trips with my mom. There are times when we just sit in silence and I realize that we don't need to say anything but just spend time together. I know that this post may seem a bit weird for a grown man like me to be posting, but there comes a time when you need to share how special it feels to love your mom and actually appreciate her.

She's intelligent, she's smart, she's beautiful and she knows how to love.  She taught me how to pray, she taught me how to love, she taught me how to cook and she taught me to be the man that I am today that knows God, that fears God and that knows how to be responsible and to always be who I am in a the greatest way possible.

My mom taught me respect and showing her respect first and foremost is something that brings pleasure in my life and I love being able to share life with her and being able to share the life that she gave me.  She is my friend, she is my inspiration, she is my rock and purely put...she's the good in me.

Gotta love mom!

Jidenna - Classic Man (Remix) ft. Kendrick Lamar

Patience is a virtue

There's nothing more exciting than trying new things and trying to be good at it.  Some people are just good at being bad but, yo... that's their prerogative.

I'm trying to grow my hair. And not just to grow it, but to grow an afro. It's exciting to try and grow it, however it takes a long time to try and grow it.  This is the fun in the whole process.  It's fun trying to see how long it has grown each week, sometimes I even wonder how long it has grown each day.  The patience in trying to grow it makes one realize that trying to make something work is something that will take quite some time and will definitely make a person question a lot of things...such as, whether to continue doing or to just give it up.  Giving up is a hard thing to do, but the metaphor of the patience in growing the afro is something I like.

So let's hope in a couple of months time you'll see me rocking a great, kick ass afro.

He has a casual looking one...pretty cool

The one and only Prince

This is just too nice.

This one only looks cool. Rugged but cool!!

My friends Emily and Khethiwe.  These are my good friends whom I always have such a great time with.

Equqlity

By your side (I'll never leave your side)

This is Sade's "By Your Side" video.  If you haven't seen the video or you feel like just getting a bit nostalgic, press play... you won't regret it.

I don't know if you understand the concept of the video. Sade is walking around in the romantic scenery with all her "normal lifestyle" around her and she interacts with the "lifestyle".  Very sweet, very pure and very touching.  She is later seen in the city streets holding out flowers in passing traffic as she offers these flowers to the passing traffic.

When we are in high school and growing up, we are always asked the question: "what do you want to be when you grow up?"  The answers are always very generic and expected. "I wanna be a doctor. I wanna be a police man. I wanna be a teacher..."  These are the professions that we all think are the most successful and the only profitable and sustainable professions.  If you are lucky enough to have a family that supports you and believes in you, you will broaden your perspective and your ambitions and seek to find what you love and what you have passion for and to do.  And let's face it, you have to love what you do...otherwise, why are you doing it...why stress your self and why even try to continue trying to convince yourself that you are working and chasing a dream?!  It's just a dead end...

This video really speaks to me, cos Sade walks around in the scenery of the place that she loves and holds dear to her heart and collects pieces of it and interacts with it and embraces it as she sings the lyrics: "If you think I'd leave your side, I wouldn't do that..."  The scenery is special as it is bare and is only surrounded with trees and bare land.  There is no buildings or a lot of movement, it is almost as though it is a place all on its own put aside in this whole wide world just for them.  It is beautiful in its natural state.  The lyrical content is deep and totally profound.  At one point she says: "If you want to cry, I am here to dry you eyes".  To me this line says that you might be strong and you might have everything together, but when it gets too much and you need a way to release the pain, I am always here for you.  She continues her journey in the video as she leaves all that she loves and has been interacting with and walks on an open road.  Up ahead in the distance you see buildings that she is approaching as she slowly makes her way away from her "home" to the "city".

This is the story for most of us.  We grow up in the hood and leave the hood to pursue our dreams and look for and search for "a better life" and to find success.  This does not mean that you abandon your life, your lifestyle, your home or even your loved ones and everything that you love.  It just means that you are taking what you love and what you know and are going to make it work in a place that will give you better opportunities and a chance to make a success of your life.  It just means that you are brave enough to leave your comfort zone in search of a "difference" to bring you closer to your dreams and your ambitions.  You leave home to go live in the city or just to work in the city, but in your heart of hearts you know where home is and will always be.  You go into the city from the hood to go sell your intelligence, to go sell your ideas and to go sell your opinion to a different environment from where you come from.  You take the teachings that you have been offered in school and have been raised with to go and change opinions and to make people look up and notice YOUR opinion and to let them know that there is a voice that is yearning to be heard. 

The important this is to make sure that no matter what, you don't sell your soul to the concrete jungle.  To make sure that you do not get swallowed in the belly of the infamous beast that is the city...because it has a lot of temptations, a lot of paths that will and can lead you astray.  Know your self, know what you want and know what you will not succumb to, and you can always go back home with you head held up high and be proud to be making a difference in the world but still maintaining dignity and self-respect.  So that precious flower that Sade is offering in the city... don't forget to offer the flower knowing that you have a garden that you are growing at home so that you never have to suffer in the streets.

Keep your dreams alive.  Keep faithful.  Keep ambitious.  Rocksteady!