Hey friends,
Cheesy as this story may be, hear me out!
My mother, just like I was a couple of months ago, is a Sunday School teacher and so naturally we have a lot of common ground and interesting insights about kids to share. Yesterday she was teaching her grade 3 kids about the famous story of The Leper at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:1-9). After teaching, she led the class is singing that song we all probably sang at Sunday School, “Silver and gold, I have none …🎶” Then as usual, she asked the kids if they had understood the lesson for the day.
Like in a typical class, there are those who did and those who didn’t. So she went ahead and asked those who didn’t understand whether they at all believed they could understand. And the kids were very honest in letting her know that they believed they could not understand the lesson of the day.
This story reminded me of my volunteering stint in 2016 at Mathare Primary School. The school is situated right at the center of the slums but on the other side, just a bridge away, is the affluent leafy Muthaiga neighborhood. Strange enough, and hardly believable is that kids from this school could not believe that they could just cross the bridge and take a walk to Muthaiga even just to admire the houses or take a casual stroll if anything!
Although, we could call for nuance in my mum’s story and argue that the kids would have undiagnosed learning disabilities or disorders or in my story, that there have been probably cases of arrests of older kids from the slums suspected to be thieves thus instilling fear; I argue that it is the story of all of us.
At one point in our lives certain things have seemed or still seem unachievable; a flight/holiday to a different destination or country, the possibility of finding love after constant heartbreaks, the possibility of getting a job after numerous rejections, and the list goes on. The truth is, all these are achievable and no matter how much our brains may try to deceive us and trick us into being cynical, these impossible possibilities have been possible for other people.
Maybe the first step into a different story is just reframing our minds into knowing and believing that our hopes, dreams and aspirations are achievable.
Have a great week ahead!
Ngoiri
Interesting stuff this week
Tiktok - I discovered this guy @richardsalesofficial who is obsessed with organization and things getting filled to the brim. Given that I am a sucker for things being organized, this account has been my best guilty pleasure this week.
Blog- I recently re-read this article by Sheen Gurrib on scheduling a worry time. For classic overthinkers like me,, I think you will find this article highly useful and practical.
Notes to keep
Worry is essentially an attempt at some type of problem solving. It can also be a means of dealing with uncertainty , which is a daily part of life. If you identify a problem that you can take action to address, then go for it! If not, tell yourself “I’m going to do my best to let go of this thought and put my attention on something else until it’s my scheduled worry time again.” Let’s close some of these tabs and pop-ups, and stay connected to our present! Whatever the future holds, we’ve got this! - Sheen Gurrib