Of Late Nights and Good Music

There's a poem I have in my drafts, that I started to write a few months ago and failed to finish. Truth is, I started to write it years ago and never did finish it. Today I went searching in my archives to see if I could find a more complete version, as no current inspiration is forthcoming. I did find it in an email trail seven and a half years old, but even there it is incomplete. 

That email trail...the feels therein!! 

But I did stumble upon something else in that trail, a fatigued mind's moment of inspiration quickly penned. I was surprised to find that I never did post it to the blog. Well, they say "Better late than never"so here goes...

The office building is finally quiet; everyone save for myself has left for the evening. The night falls softly without, to the sound of crickets and little else. It is the first night in many that doesn’t feel like a steam bathroom. I stare at my laptop screen, my tired mind struggling to perfectly formulate the phrases that have kept me here this late. 

Procrastination is many things, none of them positive.  

The sultry tones of Lauryn Hill accompanied by an acoustic guitar do little to stimulate my foggy brain. I close my eyes and the music washes over me. For just a moment, all else falls away and I am carried on wings of gossamer to that place, the place beyond dreams. 

But just for a moment. All too soon, the night office sounds - the ticking clock, the creaking furniture, the buzzing mosquitoes - drag me back to the here and now, to unedited documents and the beginnings of a fatigue headache. Goosebumps on my arms - whether from the cool night air or the music, I can’t decide - I grudgingly refocus my mind on the task at hand.

Impromptu poetry

On the Afrobloggers WhatsApp group, Lutgard Musiime Akiiki gave a one-liner - "I am burning in my own skin" - and asked poets to do their thing, so I gave it a shot ... 

  

I am burning in my own skin

 I can’t possibly hold this in - 

 Much longer! 

 It gets stronger -

 With each passing moment.

It threatens to rip me apart

But I don’t know how to start

Letting the world know. 

How do I show

What could possibly be?

I’ll feed  the passion quietly

Let it burn on internally.

Soon it will be

Greater than me

And then, the world will burn!

How to build your plant collection

 

 

One of my hobbies is growing ornamental plants. I cannot say how or where my love for these plants started but I do think I got some of it from my Dad. Saying I love ornamental plants is not to say I am living in an indoor jungle or I think of myself as a “plant parent” but I have over the past few months acquired a few plants that make me smile and are a point of interesting discussion. There should be about 20 different species in my collection at the time of this writing. 

I get asked quite a bit where I get my plants from, so do read on to learn about the different ways in which I have, and you too can build your plant collection. I will start with the ways of acquiring plants without spending money, as I believe that a hobby should be something that brings you joy without adding stress, financial or otherwise. 

1 – Receive Gifts: Two or three of my plants were gifts from friends. This is a memorable gift and one that keeps on giving. A well-cared-for plant can be enjoyed for a number of years and its offspring can be shared innumerable times, bringing joy to countless others.   

 2 – Ask from family and friends: a number of ornamental plants can be propagated quite simply by way of leaves or stem cuttings. A leaf or two, or a cutting acquired from a friend’s established collection can help you start your own little garden. A quarter of the plants I have were acquired this way.

 

3 – Pluck from existing plants: This I say with a bit of caution given that plucking without permission could be viewed as stealing if the plants are in a controlled environment. But a wildly growing plant with some offshoots can provide a good starting point. I got a few plants this way.

4 – Buy: There are a number of places from which one can purchase ornamental plants – roadside stalls, shops in malls, online shops. Your choice depends on your pocket. I find the roadside stalls to be the cheaper option, although the mall or online shops are more likely to have fancier and more exotic plants, with a higher price to match. Less than half my plants are store-bought, and mainly from the roadside stalls.

5 – Propagate: As your plants grow, you can take leaves, cuttings, or plantlets and start new plants to spread in other areas of your home or office, or spread some plant love through gifts to other people.

 

Well, there you have the five ways in which I have grown my plant collection to date. Do let me know which you have employed before or are planning to employ, and happy acquiring. 

Creating to Survive

It is Day 4 of the #WinterABC2021, still in the spirit of Creatives. For the past couple of days I have been thinking about whether Creatives are born or made, and something someone posted today concretised those thoughts. It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention, and usually, on hearing this I think of the “bigger” inventions like the light bulb, the aeroplane or the telephone, but how about the day-to-day seemingly small “inventions” people are forced to make in order to ease their lives?

I am reminded of my childhood years. Born in a Uganda emerging from years of civil war to parents who had lived through the crazy times, creativity and minor inventions were a way of life. Everyday items were frequently repurposed to serve a need. Nail-holes punched through the bottom of a tin can made a functional grater, plastic holders of medicine ampoules nailed to a wooden board was a perfect holder for the family’s toothbrushes, using the cardboard hearts of toilet rolls as pan holders or to keep curtains in place  And loads of other things.

My siblings and I learnt from and applied our parents’ frugal ways. One thing that really stuck for my sister and I was repurposing clothes. In the true spirit of “omwana akula” (the child is still growing), the clothes purchased for us were usually a couple of sizes bigger. Mum would stitch and tuck to make them fit and they would be let out as you grow as opposed to buying new clothes every few months. Of course, that was quite a bit of stitching and tucking for a household of 5 children, so mum taught us how to do a lot of it ourselves. She showed us how to hem and tuck, make buttonholes and add little decorations here and there to turn a basic outfit into something fancy.

As we got older, my sister and I still made modifications to clothes. A few memorable ones for me were turning a maxi, overly tight skirt into a freer knee-length one, turning trousers into skirts, or ordinary trousers into fancy bell-bottoms with some jean detail. We were usually complimented on our good wardrobe *wink* There was the one time I almost burnt a black trouser-leg while ironing and to cover up I stitched a flower pattern over the almost-burnt area. No one could tell. To date, I still make modifications on my skirts and trousers to counter that waistband gap, and hide small rips in clothes with pretty patches, flowers or strategically placed button detail.

There is the application of creativity in other areas besides clothing and dressing. I recently rented a studio apartment for nearly a year. I was not at liberty to make serious permanent modifications to the space though I really wanted to separate the living and sleeping spaces. Enter creativity. I opened out the box of a fridge and used that not only as a partition for the space, but also as a board for hanging verses and décor on the living side, and jewellery and hair accessories on the sleeping side.

Then there are the things I do with my dreadlocks, but that is a discussion for another day. I might not be one of those Creatives out there, posting or releasing content for the world to consume but my side-hustle creativity does keep my life interesting and saves me a few coins here and there. Creativity today might be viewed as a way to earn a living for some but for others, it is a way to survive. 

#Day4

#WinterABC2021

#CreatingToSurvive

What’s Hindering the Creative in Me?

This is Day 2 of #WinterABC2021 and still in the Creatives Week. For my Day 1 post, I questioned whether I really am a Creative. True, I have a keen interest and moderate proficiency in music, art, and writing, but is that all it takes to be called a Creative? 

Surely not. I am reminded of a wise man who said “If you do not have a market, you do not have a business.” You might have a product like bananas on a farm but until they are in a market stall for purchase, you cannot say you are in business. 

I guess in the same way, however much I am appreciating lyrics, melodies, and harmonies, well-decorated spaces or well-written stories, until I am creating actual content and putting it out there for consumption, I probably am not a Creative. 

But I have a published book *cue smug-faced emoji*.

I guess I am a Creative after all, a side-hustle Creative, but a Creative nonetheless… Hooray!!

But beyond the book, what else have I created and put out there? Why am I not creating, despite my self-proclaimed proficiency in the arts? 

Let’s skip right to it and say FEAR. Whichever reason I come up with, it can be boiled down to that four-letter word. 

I wouldn’t exactly say I am afraid of the unknown. It is known that living as a Creative is not for the faint-hearted. It takes courage to break boundaries, seek out new horizons, or dance to the tune that only you can hear while others call you crazy. So I guess I am afraid of being brave, of being the different one. Following the beaten path is safe, predictable, and acceptable. Being accepted is nice. 

Then there are the expected hardships that Creatives supposedly go through. The uncertainty about where the next meal is coming from, the writer’s/creator’s block, being looked at as a failure or being asked to “get a real job” until the big break comes…. I know this is probably too cliché and Creative or not, one faces all sorts of hardships in whatever field but there’s a certain narrative around being a struggling Creative that seems accepted as the norm. I am afraid of having to find out that this narrative is true. 

There are a couple more reasons that I will probably explore over the next few weeks, but let me stop here for now. As I work to overcome my fears, I will continue to be a side-hustle Creative. 

#Day2 #WinterABC2021 

#SideHustleCreative

Am I A Creative? #WinterABC2021 #Day1

This is a word that has been going around a lot lately.

Creative. With a Capital “C”. 

Not the adjective definition of “relating to or involving the use of the imagination or original ideas to create something.” 

But an actual noun. A person who makes a job of creating stuff.

Whenever I hear the word used in that sense, the mental picture I get is of this amazing person who is changing the world through brilliant innovative solutions to humanity’s oldest problems. And the solutions are usually breathtakingly beautiful, extremely simple and perfectly functional. 

Said person is also a radical go-getter, afraid of nothing and no-one, content to forego comfort and luxury in pursuit of the joy of creating, unable to be tied down by the security of such mundane things as a regular job. And this person is not only raking in loads of cash but also at perfect peace with themselves as they are doing that for which they were created.

Then I look at me.

Me with my bachelor’s degree in a profession as mainstream as they come, working a 9 to 5 job, Monday to Friday. Me with a well set-up professional profile on LinkedIn and academic publications to my name. 

I do have my occasional dabblings in music, fine art and writing (I have published a book and have a rather inactive blog) but does that qualify me as a Creative? My List on Netflix is full of reality competitions in art, music, creativity generally, and my YouTube subscriptions are to organisational, interior decorating and DIY craft channels but does that earn me the name?

Maybe I am a Creative in disguise or denial, still boxed in by societal expectations and comfortable in the "security" of the 9-5? Maybe I am like that hero in the movies living the ordinary life until some traveling mage lets them know they are the Hope that their world has been waiting for? 

Am I A Creative?

#Day1

#WinterABC2021

#WhoAmI?

#FindingMe

PS: I have not blogged in over a year and hope to use this #WinterABC2021 to revive this site :)