For anyone who’d read my previous post, you’ll see that I’ve been in that Lion King spirit courtesy of my sisters. All circle of life and we are one type of phase. Sometimes I mull hard on what I’d write, but other times I say to myself, fluff it, and just jam soothing music into my ears, pick up my phone and begin to write.
So, it was while listening to these songs which I like, that I stumbled on a reply to my most recent post which brought about the title to this post. Hakuna Matata. And it sunk. The meaning. No worries for the rest of your days. While I was growing up, I took it to be living a lazy, purposeless life, but now, it doesn't seem that way. It doesn't mean that challenges don't come, but it means you don't worry. You don't dwell, self-pitying at them, you take action. You work. And you don't let it bother you afterwards.
Oops…I’d been sitting outside, basking in the evening breeze and now I see the beginnings of what might be a serious storm. Delicious. The winds are really heavy. And the sky turned an angry dark. My phone’s camera quality could be called wack at best but I still decided that a few pictures wouldn’t hurt. I wish I could capture the trees dancing so furiously to the force of the wind but I can’t so my not-so-wonderful pictures would have to suffice. The rains have started but like I usually say, all my adoration for storms ends once the rain starts.
Anyways, I’m sorry I digressed so much. I guess I went too much with the flow. But everything does lead up to something right? I went out a bit before the rains started and I danced a little as the wind kept shifting me here and there. Risky business, I tell you. And then the thought came to me. What if I was famous? What if I was a celebrity with so much wealth, I’d have dozens of security agents and the paparazzi everywhere I go, how would I have been able to enjoy this? How would I be able to bask in this wonderful force of nature?
Like everyone, growing up, I’ve had big plans for myself. A family of girls, except Dad of course. We had our lives mapped out. Dad was buoyant, everything was at our beck and call. I remember now that even then we kept asking Dad when we’d be rich. Oh, the obliviousness of youth. I look back now and I laugh so hard. Then, of course, some years later, life hit.
It was really funny, being bent materially into ways we’d never have imagined. Seeing resources become lesser and lesser till it was almost unbearable. And then Dad called us one day and said that he was not despairing because this was teaching us to live simply. We were aghast, what good was to come out of the things we were going through? But I heard from him first, the statement,Beauty In Simplicity. Hakuna Matata. It means no worries, for the rest of your days.
He hammered into us the power of living simply. Although, back then, we didn’t even have a choice. We had to live simply. And before we knew it, slowly, we slipped into minimalist living. Our lavish ways and even more obscene degrees of wasting, especially with food, ended. Things remained like this for a long time. Till, it became ingrained in our being.
So, even when we slowly noticed that things were going back to how it was before, we were eating well and the resources, generally in the house increased, we couldn’t just go back to our former life. We’d learned, the hard way that living simply was best. And it grew from being a compulsion to something we did by choice.
So, I could imagine, being a celebrity. Having everything at my beck and call, I can’t be that deceitful to say that it would be a piece of cake, living a minimalist lifestyle, but I can say that I’ll maintain my lifestyle by just living the way I’d been taught to live. Simply. There is no waste of food. And there’s no overtly lavish spending on clothes. And there’s no reason that I would live in a big, opulent house that lacks all traces of warmth and the characteristic of a home, when I can live cosily, in my own little space.
Having children is still quite far from my prospects but when I eventually have them, there wouldn’t be any question as to how they would live, because they would be born to see their mother living simply. I don’t feel there’s a better way to instil value into a child than letting them see that you embody that value. That you live by that value. It sounds complicated but it’s quite simple if it’s something that has always been a part of you.
I had to stop writing this for a while and I can see that the rains had stopped. A while ago actually, and as I gaze into the sky dotted with a million stars, I let my mind relax. No worries for the rest of my days.❤️
All images are mine.
If you've not yet hopped onto the #kiss, blogging idea, please do so here.
