Time out

I'm afraid we'll have to take some time out in our weekly meetings as I've just come back from Barcelona where I've had surgery on my right hip. I'm recovering quite well but I'll need a long while to rehab and I'll be on crutches  that time. 

Sorry about that. In the mean time I offer you this beautiful poem "To an English friend in Africa", by Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet and writer. I first heard about him through my daughter, at that time studying Politics at Edimburgh University back fifiteen years ago.

To an English friend in Africa

For Daisy Waugh

Be grateful for the freedom

To see other dreams.

Bless your loneliness as much as you drank

Of your former companionships.

All that you are experiencing now

Will become moods of future joys

So bless it all.

Do not think your way superior

To another's

Do not venture to judge

But see things with fresh and open eyes

Do not condemn

But praise when you dan

And when you can't, be silent.

Time now is a gift for you

A gift of freedom

To think and to remember and understand

The ever perplexing past

And to re-create yourself anew

In order to transform time.

Live while you are alive

Learn the ways of silence and wisdom

Learn to act, learn a new speech

Learn to be what you are in the seed of your spirit

Learn to free yourself from all the things

That have moulded you

And which limit your secret and undiscovered road.

Remember that all things which happen

To you are raw materials

Endlessly fertile

Endlessly yielding of thoughts that could change

Your life and go on doing so forever.

Never forget to pray and be thankful

For all things good or bad on the rich road;

For everything is changeable

So long as you live while you are alive.

Fear not, but be full of light and love;

Fear not, but be alert and receptive;

Fear not, but ace decisively when you should;

Fear not, but know when to stop;

Fear not, for you are love by me;

Fear not, for death is not the real terror,

But life -magically- is.

Be joyful in your silence

Be strong in your patience

Do not try to wrestle with the universe

But be sometimes like water or air

Sometimes like fire

And constant like the earth.

Live slowly, think slowly, for time is a mystery.

Never forget that love

Requires always that you be

The greatest person you are capable of being,

self-regenerating and strong and gentle -

Your own hero and star.

Love demands the best in us

To always and in time overcome the worst

And lowest in our souls.

Love the world wisely.

It is love alone that is the greatest weapon

And the deepest and hardest secret.

So fear not, my friend.

The darkness is gentler that you think.

Be grateful for the manifold

Dreams of creation

And the many ways of the unnumbered peoples.

Be grateful for life as you live it.

And may a wonderful light

Always guide you on the unfolding road.

March 1991