Tree Treasures

Joycita Receptacula

I walk by this tree on my way to and from work. Now, it has been very dry and hot as you may realise from looking at the tree and the ground around it. When it is hot, like now, I walk on any side of the tree but when it rains, there is a lot of grass around the tree and grass holds creepy crawlies so I walk only on the left side which is the proper pathway. Now that I have written that, it seems rather pointless but now you know. Anyway, this tree has been leafless for so long that I cannot remember how its leaves look like. It has been really, really hot. So hot that you can hardly get a decent night's sleep. If a night is cooler then the next day the tea time talk in the office will be about how well we slept. 

As I walk past the tree, it looks like it is really feeling the effect of the heat. I remarked to a colleague that the tree looks like it is raising its hands to God in a plea for rain. Can you see it? My colleague looked at the tree and told me that the tree actually holds a lot of water in its trunk. Enough water to tide it over to the rainy season. In a word, imejipanga. I looked at the tree in a different light. Really, I have looked at it in the light of the sunset, hot noon sun, moonlight, vehicle headlamps etc but I digress. This tree, is really a quiet champion! It is a spectacular receptacle of water! Hence its biological name, Joycita Receptacula. What? I can see your sceptical smile. Let me pause and say that if I learnt anything from history, it is that if you find something in nature, a place, a river, a mountain, a lake, a butterfly, a tree, you name it. It does not matter that the locals have a name for it and know that the trunk holds water. YOU NAME IT. And you put your name  somewhere in there because you want to make it easier for future students of history and biology to know who discovered it. Yes, because you are charitable. So the tree is the Joycita Receptacula. Just Joycita if you don't want to burden your tongue.

Joycita reminds me of the words of a friend who told me, and I paraphrase, "...when you are in a dry season in your spiritual life, draw from the past". If you have trouble believing, remember what God has done in the past. I'm also reminded of a sermon based on Matthew 6:19-21,  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I always thought that these verses only talked about the future. About what we'd finally get in heaven. This preacher, said we should store up His word in our hearts and minds. She went on to say, to my delight, that whenever we needed it, God would reach into our account in heaven where we had stored this treasure and give us what we need. Have you been in a situation and recalled a verse or sermon that helped you through it? That came from your Treasure Account!

The preceding verses talk of giving, praying and fasting.  Speaking of fasting, you may be familiar with that story in the Bible where Jesus' disciples were unable to cast out a demon from a boy. Jesus came and cast it out and later, they asked Him why they couldn't cast it out. He told them that they could only be cast out by prayer and fasting. I'd read that and wonder if the disciples were supposed to see the boy, pray and fast then go back and cast out the demons. My mom told me that it was the praying and fasting you'd already done that would count then. The light bulb that went on in my mind was well, as bright as those lights Esther Passaris put up in Mathare. 

Christ taught that the giving, praying and fasting is to be done in secret. When done in this manner, they result in a reward from God. This tree draws its water not through these branches we can see, but through its roots which we cannot see. After the rainy season, the dry season will come. So her roots work in the rainy season. The verses succeeding these, go on to urge us not to worry but rather to trust God. Read on here. Studying the Word, giving to those in need, praying and fasting. That is how we gather the water that keeps Joycita alive in the dry season. 

Maybe Joycita's limbs are up in worship to the Giver, not just supplication for the gift. 

Slow March

The elephants have no bearing to anything here, but it is a beautiful picture isn't it?

Last night I was in a tea induced state of sleeplessness. I had nothing to do but think as I waited for sleep to catch up with me. So I thought of how long March was. It was so long to me that my mind made an executive decision to cross over into April. The result was that I was wondering how I had missed deadlines like 31 March 2013 and I was also busy telling my brother how April has been a long month for Kenyans. I told him this twice, but he made no response hehehe. My mind was making these executive decisions because March exceeded its allocated quota of events. If days were soldiers, then the days were in a slow march.

For Kenyans especially, all we did was wait. We waited for March 4, so we could vote. Then we waited in line to vote. Well, I didn't, seeing as I went at 4pm when there was no queue. I'd advise you all to do the same but I won't because if we all did that, then the queue at 4pm would be equivalent to the circumference of the Kenyatta's farms and lands. Where was I? We voted, then we went back home (as advised in the numerous advertisements) and waited for the results to start, as journalists say, streaming in. As we waited, we had to watch all the political commentaries and tolerate the music played by most TV stations as we watched that screen from Bomas. That is where the choirs should have come in. We waited for IEBC officials to read out the results and for these results to be updated on that screen. Finally the results were in the millions and the spoilt votes in their hundreds of thousands then they stopped coming in. Then they stopped the tallying and we waited for IEBC to say why. The tallying started all over again. And we redid all the waiting. TV stations tried to make the waiting easier though I am not sure they succeeded. Kanze and Lulu did their best though.

I suppose you all remember waiting for the IEBC Chair to come and declare one or the other as president. Then after he came in, we had to wait for the choirs to sing. In IEBC's defence, I suppose they did not want an audit to reveal that they paid a certain choir a significant amount of money to sing, 'You Raise me Up' and it did not sing it. Transparency and accountability etc etc. So they sang and finally the announcement was made. Well, the wait was over, not! We waited for Raila's speech, then Uhuru's speech. 

Now we waited for the Supreme Court. For Raila to file the petition, for the court to set dates. So much TV watching. And meme making.Then the proceedings started and we waited once more. We were used to waiting now. My mind does not agree. But I overrule it. Affidavits were thrown out. Advocates spoke for hours on end. We waited for Nazlin to sit down, for rulings, for the final ruling, especially for that final decision. Waited all day. I was afraid that if I took a nap, I'd miss it all together. It came finally. At 5pm and after five minutes (anti-climax no?) Kenya exhaled. Some were happy, some sad but all relieved that we waited no more. 

Let me give this story a moral. We have to wait for stuff in life. The question then is, what do we do when waiting? Watch analysts? Stare at the new studios rustled up by TV stations? Work? Work actually worked best for passing the time. Enough moral for now! Let me leave some of my (limited) wisdom for another post!

Of course, we are still waiting for IEBC's ink to fade...