The Fight

....it’s been awhile...

I sometimes hate my talent, because it means I allow people to get to know more.  And I do not like that. I sometimes dream to be an island but, instead I’m human amongst humans, how annoying.

A few weeks ago I was asked to recite a poem instead I wrote a letter  to myself and now I share it with you. 

Dear You,

What fight are you fighting?

• The voices of men and women who fought decades and centuries ago sounds nothing like the voices of this day. Today the voices sing a new song.
• What interests me most is what fight are you fighting?
• Remember when you were in high school, annoyed by one of your adolescent troubles and exclaimed “uh I can wait until I leave high school!”....  Well High Schools over, how is life now....
• It was as if I was Maya Angelou’s Caged bird that...

 ....stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing

• For in my head life is such a challenge all you can do is sing, Is this the song I sing to that reflects my heart (ah ah no... Maám I refuse) so like Maya I will ask plainly ...

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

• I think you missed the question, I simply asked what are you fighting?
• Okay fine; A Corrupt government has us lamenting the cries of Robert William Service

To hell with Government I say;
I'm sick of all the piddling pack.
I'd like to scram, get clean away,
And never, never more come back.
With a heart of hope I long to go
To some lost island of the sea,
And there get drunk with joy to know
No one on earth is over me.

• Really now?
• Okay what about compassion, I’m fighting for compassion, Is that not a right cause

Like a story told of a young man

Who went to his friend’s funeral

And not by his own sadness

But, that of his friends family

That deeply moved he wept

• Maybe, that’s what I am fighting for that type of compassion
• Or perhaps the injustices of this world, that we could one day arrive to a place like, Raymond Foss and  commemorate with jubilance

We gathered, took time off,
pondered our freedom,
on the anniversary
our Declaration of Independence
when we dissolved the political bonds
when we proclaimed, to the world,
what we hoped for, what we believed in
as a people, set apart,
that we hold these truths to be self-evident,
that we are born equal, each one,
that the creator gave us unalienable rights,
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

How wondrous are those words,
how much we have achieved
casting off the chains that hold us back
how far we have to go; but
We are free, by most measures

• Well to me by men’s standard that is an honourable thing to fight for
• See, that could be what I let people see, ignoring the actual fight happening and putting on a façade
• But, I cannot be the only one fighting so I stalked some people in the most socially dignified way, on Facebook. To find that they too were fighting.

“Bare your blade and raise it high, stand your ground, the dawn will come.”

Francois

“Embrace what God is trying to do in your life! Your spiritual life and inner growth will overflow.”

Semakaleng

"When I speak to you, I speak from Christ within me, Christ in you, Christ around us and Christ among us.”

Mariette

“Yes a girl can look beautiful with short hair... rocking my natural hair like nobody’s business... Those who knew me for weave hitting and scratching... sorry no more.”

Tlotlisang

• This fight thing I do not do alone, and not every fight is plainly seen
• There have been men and women who fought; many carry scares; not all lay to be seen, in their clenched fists and bruised limbs, but rather in the Deep recesses of their hearts and winding valleys in their minds.
• You asked me what I am fighting
• Well, honestly, I’m fighting you most of the times. I fight myself.
• And yes I walk through the corridors of life, with others walking along side me and passed me.
• But most of the battles are with myself, which is both frustrating and heart-breaking
• Yet I am nudged constantly, there’s this thing that keeps pulling me  and pushing me forward
• Like the words uttered by Stephen King’s Red in the Walls of Shawshank State Prison

 “Let me tell you something my friend.

 Hope is a dangerous thing.

Hope can drive a man insane.”

• Perhaps that’s why my fight is not in utter despair, because of Hope, remembering always

We are hard pressed on every side,

 but not crushed;

perplexed, but not in despair; 

persecuted, but not abandoned

;struck down, but not destroyed.

• Perhaps like Paul (the Apostle) I too can on day say

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

•  But until then in hope I continue to pray

In Him we live, In Him move, In Him we have our being. Now unto Him who is able to do, exceeding, abundantly, above all that we could ask or think or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us.

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honour and glory forever and ever. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and evermore.

Amen

With Love, Me