Sunday, September 30, 2012

SAKKOT

Tonight our soundtrack was thunder. Our light was the flashing light of the heavens. We ate food in the rain. It wasn't pouring hard. It was just enough to cool us down a little and increase the excitement of our celebrations. These blessed rains began shortly before the main meal of our sakkot celebration. A sweeter blessing prayer I have not heard "Lord we wait for Your coming and we know that You wait for us to."

The man who sat at our table told us about what a blessing it is to have rain during sakkot as it is what they always pray for. It hardly ever happens he said.

"Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord." Come Lord Jesus, Come!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Peace of Jerusalem

I'm listening to the sounds of the city of Jerusalem. It is chabad. I can feel that this city is made of relationships. I saw it as everything was shut down today and people enjoyed rest. Sons walked with their fathers. Little children were with their parents. Husbands were with their wives walking hand in hand at ease with one another in silence.

I could feel that what gives Jerusalem its energy is its ability to stop and worship G_d for a full night and a full day every week. When people walk together slowly not rushing anywhere once a week, what they do is that they get to enjoy each other. Relationships become the focal point.

Today I have seen the peace of Jerusalem. It exists. Peace is indeed not an absence of war and turmoil but the ability to be still before God as though there were no guns at the boarders of your country. Peace is the faith to enjoy God and the people He has given you because no matter what is happening. This is truly what matters in life. Nothing else does.

There is no living without loving. Living without loving is like a cistern without water. It is like a city without people.
Living without loving is a purposeless life since the highest purpose of living can only be loving.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Tomorrow




Tomorrow 
Tomorrow is not just tomorrow,
Tomorrow is that day,
It is the day of days.
It is that day that is worth waiting for. 
It is the kind of day you could not dare whisper
Not even in your sleep
You could not 
Wish
Upon such a good 
Thing
For sheer reverence
I shall not speak of it
I can only allow
Tomorrow
To announce itself
As an angel called
Today
Waiting to take me 
By the hand
To a place
Where angels gather
In awe
In anticipation
Of future days
Days whose bliss
Is ever increasing
Whose blessings
Multiply with each
Waking Day
The angels are here
I must 
Go

© siki dlanga


Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Nunnery Wedding


I was one of four young ladies
Changing a car tyre for the first time
As your marriage set us in motion
Crossing boarders for the first time
When our passports were stamped
We could not say that we were fully outside of our country
Since we had never been more inside our Mzantsi
Lesotho Mountains curtaining our eyes from the sight of our provinces
Preventing our ears from hearing the noises of our cultures
Creating the perfect setting for intimacy
We forgot our lives
We were in a new land
Trying to communicate
Lost in Sesotho
The wedding took place at the Nunnery
Old non-smiling humble nuns looking on
Creating an unreal serene atmosphere
Fortunately the wedding priest was no nun
Sprowson announced Mthi and Lite man and wife
A few Sotho people responded in song
A song so silent we could have been at a funeral
South Africans took over
Fair enough nuns and marriage never do meet
Yet this day the nunnery would know the sound of wedding celebrations
In an instance Basotho land became Xhosa land
Singing, dancing, rejoicing fearlessly
With pride we boasted about the bride
We showed off the brilliance of the groom
I remember the night as though it were yesterday
Darkness fell that night yet unable to quiet our singing
Stars shone like angel eyes looking through the curtains of heaven
Watching and in awe of our uncontainable rejoicing, dancing and singing
Elation covered us like the blankets of the Basotho people
I could not recall anything of journeying back
What remains in memory is only happiness
That had me believe that I floated back
Leaving the humble world of nuns
In total wedding bliss
I sometimes wonder
If that nunnery
Still stands
Quietly
Or if our songs
Still loom over that night sky
While angel eyes testify
Proclaiming
Eternal wedding
Celebrations

© siki dlanga
25 September 2012 for Mthi and Lite Adonis on their Anniversary

Sunday, September 23, 2012

What a Year So Far!

We are into our final quarter of the year and I can honestly say "what a year it has been!" It has been absolutely great! This last few months I do need to be more organised than ever before inorder to ensure that next year is even better. I happen to think next year will be brilliant though I have not thought too deeply about it since this year has been an absolute ball!!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Marikana 45



45 men dead.
Twelf-thousand, 500 Rand.
Numbers that mean life or death
Yet no numbers give nor lead to life.
45 men dead.
What is the cost
Of a father?

What is the cost
Of a father
Who returns home
Alive?
What is the cost
Of a father’s hug?
What is the cost
Of a father’s voice
Over the phone
Telling you
He is coming home?
Bringing you dresses,
Trousers,
School uniform?
What is the cost
Of saying Tata,
uTata wam?

What does it cost
The man who demands
Twelf- thousand, 500 rand?
When his pocket
Is full with twelf-thousand, 500 rand?
How will he feel
When he closes his eyes at night?
What does his face look like?
Does he pretend
That he never knew his neighbour?
Does he demand
Twelf-thousand, 500 rand
With a clear conscience?
Or does he need twelve-thousand, 500 rand
To bury himself from the sight of 45 men dead?
To shut himself from the
Sound of gun shots that killed someone’s son,
Someone’s husband,
Someone’s father,
Someone’s uncle,
A neighbour’s son,
Someone.

Does he still hear
His own name
Without guilt?
Does he still know whose son he is?
Does he know his children?
Can he look at their faces now?
Did he shoot or did he watch his neighbour fall?
Did he too die as he watched his friend fall?
Was the bullet his?

Will he dig where that man once dug?
Will he turn to a sangoma
To kill his conscience and die a slow death?
Will he look to the sky,
Beat his chest?
Will he beg for mercy?
Will he beg for mercy?
Will he beg for mercy?
For the greed of men,
For the lust of power,
For brutal inequalities?

Will he weep and beg for mercy?
For his friend’s children
For himself
For the men in blue
For the men playing with power
For the men of the mines
For the men who thought
They were in charge?
For the 45 men?


© siki dlanga

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Fantastic Quote

Home is ultimately not about a place to live but about the people with whom we are most fully alive. Home is about love, relationships, community, and belonging, and we are all  searching for home. Erwin McManus


Monday, September 10, 2012

My Beautiful Siblings


Aren't they gorgeous....
There is of course one more sibling missing in the picture plus myself.
But these two are probably the most beautiful ones. Give or take.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Inspiration to Believe

We live by faith and not by sight so that the God of glory may display His glory through us.
What greatness is there if all I achieve is what I can fulfill in my own human strength? It seems noble but it is not only boring but it is a lot smaller than what is really possible. Faith is an invitation to live larger and beyond yourself.

Yes, there is a higher place to live from. This is a place where eagles soar, a place where lions close their mouths and rather choose to sit with you for a night rather than shred you to pieces.

There is a place where the fire does not burn a single strand of your hair because you have greater, truer fire that burns brighter in you than any fire you could ever be placed in. This is when the all consuming fire shows up in the midst of the man-made fire.

Then you can dance in the fire. This is faith which the just shall live by. This is the faith that makes us righteous.

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