Elke dag vergeet ‘n mens dinge. Die dinge wat mens vergeet wat dadelik ’n impak op jou lewe het weet mens dadelik van – ’n afspraak veral, maar dan is daar die kleiner goedjies wat soms ongesiens deurglip en die dag as jy weer daardie oorbelletjies soek besef jy – ai, hulle het inderdaad êrens vergete bly lê.
Daar is so baie potensiaal om dinge te vergeet. ‘n Mens vergeet verjaardae, aanwysings, om goed in te pak, saam te vat of weer terug te neem en ook, tot ’n mens verleentheid afsprake. Ek vergeet gereeld name, gesigte – loop gereeld met daardie gevoel in my binneste rond dat ek die persoon al iewers gesien het en dat hy my gaan herken, my op die naam noem en ek nie gaan weet van waar ek hom moet onthou nie.
En dan is daar ook nog die lastige klein goedjies wat mens so gereeld op plekke vergeet. Interessant dat dit gewoonlik dieselfde goed is. Ek het al menige stortsponsies aan die mensdom geskenk. Selfoonlaaiers vaar ook nie veel beter nie. Dit is tog so maklik om so ’n swart objek net in die muurprop vergete agter te laat.
Gereeld vergeet ek ook iets by die huis. Wanneer jy gereeld reis kom mens in ’n ritme – jy weet min of meer al toe oë wat om te pak en tog ten spyte daarvan is daar gereeld iets wat vergete bly. Ek moes al van onderklere to haarjel gaan soek op die mees ongeleë tye en obskure plekke, bloot omdat dit my heeltemal ontglip het met die keer se pak. Ek het al ’n ritueel – begin jou dag in jou kop, laat dit soos ’n rolprent in jou gedagtes afspeel. Evalueer met elke stap wat jy alles nodig het en pak daarvolgens. Dit help, maar niks is heeltemal onfeilbaar nie.
As ek nie lysies maak nie sal ek seker nog meer dinge vergeet en laat lê. So my lewe word genavigeer deur hordes lysies. Sonder my dagboek is ek so verlore soos ’n marsbewoner op aarde. Solank ek my dagboek met die lysies vir elke dag aan my sy het, leef ek in die illusie dat alles onder beheer is.
Onwillekeurig kon ek nie help om te dink dat ons so dikwels voel soos daardie stortsponsie wat in ’n hotelkamer of ’n gymstort agtergebly het nie. Baie maal, wanneer die lewe jou enige kant toe gooi, jou moeg maak voel mens asof God jou vergeet het. Jy voel asof jy net nie meer op sy lysie is nie.
Jy begin uitroep – Here het U my vergeet?
Ek kan nie help om te dink dat dit presies is wat Jesus uitgeroep het aan die kruis toe Hy meer as 2000 jaar terug daar gehang het vir my en jou nie:
“ My God, my God waarom het U my verlaat?”
Hy moes dit doen sodat ons nooit uit God se gedagtes sal wees nie.
Dit is waaroor Paasfees gaan. Jesus het gekom, gesterf en opgestaan vir ons sondes, sodat ek en jy kan leef en sodat ons kan weet:
Die God wat ons dien sal ons nooit vergeet nie.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Shifting boundaries
There are many joys in having a hobby. Every week I savour the few hours of art class. It is my escape from a 8-5 work week. My source of sanity.
Yes, it is suppose to be a relaxing experience. But as we as humans are, we still want to grow even during our times of relaxation. So I handed myself over to my art teacher, giving her permission to challenge me. And she does.
This week I was faced with a sketch where I hit a wall. I felt like the guy from Run Fat Boy, Run – was struck full force by a wall, the wall of my own boundaries. I knew what I was capable of. I was comfortable with what I could do. But suddenly that was not enough, I had to dig deeper. I had to go past what I believed I could do.
That is never easy. Despite that fact that we are assured that as human beings we only use about 10% of our brain capacity. Yea, right - I do fine with running on 10% capacity.
But the moment we start to stagnate I believe we even use the limited amount of brain capacity we are currently using. Because only by growing ourselves we are able to maintain what we have and also gain new abilities and insights.
Boundaries create structure. They provide us with spaces in which we attempt to drive the chaos out. They aim to guide us.
Boundaries exist in all spheres of life. In relationships, in the work place, where we socialise, in the communities we live.
They are tools. Through living within the unseen boundaries set by society we often show respect to those around us.
But there are also the boundaries we are not always aware of. The boundaries we create ourselves. Boundaries that often prevent us from meeting our full potential.
These are the boundaries within ourselves. Created by many circumstances and previous life experiences.
Every experience in our life has the potential to become a stone in the boundary wall we build within ourselves.
We are not always aware of the extent of these boundary lines. They are often built in the subconscious. Only when we are directly faced with them, experiencing the effect it has on our lives, when what we need to achieve lies beyond these lines, only then do we realise the effect it can have on our lives.
When I hit the wall in art class I knew: this boundary I have created for myself. I always believed that there were only certain pictures that I would be able to paint and now I was painfully confronted by it.
It was painful to hit the wall, but I had to push through.
I had to keep on trying. And amazingly you can push through.
Once you have pushed through that boundary stops to exist. When you look back on it you are actually so surprised, because it seizes to exist.
It is as if it becomes completely wiped from the memory.
All you are left with is the knowing that indeed we are capable of so much more than we can even grasp or think.
Yes, it is suppose to be a relaxing experience. But as we as humans are, we still want to grow even during our times of relaxation. So I handed myself over to my art teacher, giving her permission to challenge me. And she does.
This week I was faced with a sketch where I hit a wall. I felt like the guy from Run Fat Boy, Run – was struck full force by a wall, the wall of my own boundaries. I knew what I was capable of. I was comfortable with what I could do. But suddenly that was not enough, I had to dig deeper. I had to go past what I believed I could do.
That is never easy. Despite that fact that we are assured that as human beings we only use about 10% of our brain capacity. Yea, right - I do fine with running on 10% capacity.
But the moment we start to stagnate I believe we even use the limited amount of brain capacity we are currently using. Because only by growing ourselves we are able to maintain what we have and also gain new abilities and insights.
Boundaries create structure. They provide us with spaces in which we attempt to drive the chaos out. They aim to guide us.
Boundaries exist in all spheres of life. In relationships, in the work place, where we socialise, in the communities we live.
They are tools. Through living within the unseen boundaries set by society we often show respect to those around us.
But there are also the boundaries we are not always aware of. The boundaries we create ourselves. Boundaries that often prevent us from meeting our full potential.
These are the boundaries within ourselves. Created by many circumstances and previous life experiences.
Every experience in our life has the potential to become a stone in the boundary wall we build within ourselves.
We are not always aware of the extent of these boundary lines. They are often built in the subconscious. Only when we are directly faced with them, experiencing the effect it has on our lives, when what we need to achieve lies beyond these lines, only then do we realise the effect it can have on our lives.
When I hit the wall in art class I knew: this boundary I have created for myself. I always believed that there were only certain pictures that I would be able to paint and now I was painfully confronted by it.
It was painful to hit the wall, but I had to push through.
I had to keep on trying. And amazingly you can push through.
Once you have pushed through that boundary stops to exist. When you look back on it you are actually so surprised, because it seizes to exist.
It is as if it becomes completely wiped from the memory.
All you are left with is the knowing that indeed we are capable of so much more than we can even grasp or think.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Queing for a passport
I had the unwanted privilege this week to fall into the queue to re-apply for my passport. There are things in life that you just have to do. No choice.
I was joined by literally nearly another hundred applicants who where willing to sacrifice a whole afternoon to achieve just the same.
Although everything ran smoothly we still waited more than 3 hours, before we could walk out the door.
I landed in the queue with people from different backgrounds, all with different purposes. There was a mother who wanted to register her newly born daughter, proudly showing me how beautiful she was.
There was a student who needed a passport to go and visit her family overseas.
A businessman who’s passport has expired.
Still we were all joined by the same sense of direction. We all wanted a document that would classify us as being South African citizens. Yes, we do not always have a choice, we are forced to produce travel documentation when we enter or leave the country, but having a South African passport still binds me to this country and to all the other people who share this document with me.
Marcus Buckingham writes in his book – The one thing you need to know, that there are many universals in human nature. These are phenomena that occur across all cultures and in all societies. It tells us that although we seem so different, actually we are all made with the same desires burning inside of us. He classifies these universals in to five categories:
• The need for security, as often shown by our fear for death, by us wanting to marry, being with family etc.
• The need for community, we show this often by fearing outsiders
• A need for clarity, that is why we so often fear the future and give so much prestige to people who are able to predict the future (interestingly he uses the example of economists as fulfilling this role in our society)
• We all crave for respect, we do not want to feel insignificant. He uses the interesting example to illustrate the fact, that every society in the world has a word for self-image
• And then lastly: the need for authority. The all feel chaos, we want to be part of a structure. We therefore submit ourselves to rules and a well defined system to keep the chaos at bay.
I realised that everybody in that queue portrayed one or more of those universals by there reason for standing in the passport queue.
We all want to belong to a community, we submit ourselves to authority, through belonging to a country we linked ourselves to the future of that country.
While I was talking to the mother I could see how she was craving my approval of her little one, she wanted my respect.
The student applied for a passport to go and visit her family, she wanted that passport because the is part of a family she wants to spend time with, a family providing her with a sense of security.
As I walked out of the home affairs building I realised that we should start looking at the universal things that bind us together.
Through recognising that although we are different, there are universal feelings and needs that level out those differences, we will be able to respect people despite their differences. We will be able to emphasize with people rather than criticising.
We can never be the same as other people. We need to treasure our differences, but we also need to seek and find the universals that can bring us closer together. The universals that bring South Africans together – in places like passport queues.
I was joined by literally nearly another hundred applicants who where willing to sacrifice a whole afternoon to achieve just the same.
Although everything ran smoothly we still waited more than 3 hours, before we could walk out the door.
I landed in the queue with people from different backgrounds, all with different purposes. There was a mother who wanted to register her newly born daughter, proudly showing me how beautiful she was.
There was a student who needed a passport to go and visit her family overseas.
A businessman who’s passport has expired.
Still we were all joined by the same sense of direction. We all wanted a document that would classify us as being South African citizens. Yes, we do not always have a choice, we are forced to produce travel documentation when we enter or leave the country, but having a South African passport still binds me to this country and to all the other people who share this document with me.
Marcus Buckingham writes in his book – The one thing you need to know, that there are many universals in human nature. These are phenomena that occur across all cultures and in all societies. It tells us that although we seem so different, actually we are all made with the same desires burning inside of us. He classifies these universals in to five categories:
• The need for security, as often shown by our fear for death, by us wanting to marry, being with family etc.
• The need for community, we show this often by fearing outsiders
• A need for clarity, that is why we so often fear the future and give so much prestige to people who are able to predict the future (interestingly he uses the example of economists as fulfilling this role in our society)
• We all crave for respect, we do not want to feel insignificant. He uses the interesting example to illustrate the fact, that every society in the world has a word for self-image
• And then lastly: the need for authority. The all feel chaos, we want to be part of a structure. We therefore submit ourselves to rules and a well defined system to keep the chaos at bay.
I realised that everybody in that queue portrayed one or more of those universals by there reason for standing in the passport queue.
We all want to belong to a community, we submit ourselves to authority, through belonging to a country we linked ourselves to the future of that country.
While I was talking to the mother I could see how she was craving my approval of her little one, she wanted my respect.
The student applied for a passport to go and visit her family, she wanted that passport because the is part of a family she wants to spend time with, a family providing her with a sense of security.
As I walked out of the home affairs building I realised that we should start looking at the universal things that bind us together.
Through recognising that although we are different, there are universal feelings and needs that level out those differences, we will be able to respect people despite their differences. We will be able to emphasize with people rather than criticising.
We can never be the same as other people. We need to treasure our differences, but we also need to seek and find the universals that can bring us closer together. The universals that bring South Africans together – in places like passport queues.
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