Karlos Naimwhaka

We can only get to experience the fullness of a journey as we go. When driving at night, we only see as far as the headlights can go and the rest of the journey unfolds as we go. We can imagine all the things we may see or encounter. We can fantasise all we want about the destination, but we would only know once we get there.

Sometimes the journey and its experiences go just as we have planned. Sometimes we may experience amazing things we did not expect. We may experience a tyre puncture, a little delay or may eventually not even be able to arrive due to circumstances beyond our control.

When amazing things happen beyond our expectations, we may talk about these memories with excitement and cheer for the rest of our lives. When it does not go as we expected or wished for, we tell of the experience and lessons learned even to our grandchildren in old age.

What is more revealing about this observation, though, is that it is mostly in the unexpected that we find amazement. It is in wonder that we find the beauty of life. It is in the unknown that we rediscover our true nature – the very nature we have had in our childhood until the world and all its construct ripped this pure gift out of our hearts.

We take life for granted by belittling and trivialising elements that make the core of our existence. As children, we lived in the present moment with no anxiety and worry. Yet as we grow, worry and anxiety become a normal part of our existence. We are constantly stressed out because we devise plans and wish to execute them to perfection.  

This we do without applying the wisdom we have learned from an analogy of the journey. That we may plan as we want but, at the same time, enough room should be left for the unknown, unexpected and unpredictable. We should leave room for situations beyond our control – the desirable we may have not even given a thought, as well as the undesirable.

It is therefore important that we may find time to do some reflection and introspection; look back at those moments where we felt more alive. It is in the memories of those moments that we may investigate and find those reminders of the essence of life, because it is in those moments that we are reminded to live in the beauty of wonder of the present moment, and to plan with the awareness of the illusion of control, to leave room for the wishes of the ultimate power that is beyond our comprehension, and to understand that whatever may happen – for as much as it may not be our wish – it is in perfect order of the highest realms.

E-mail: karlsimbumusic@gmail.com

Uncommon Sense is published every Friday in the New Era newspaper with contributions from Karlos Naimwhaka