love – Page 2 – Mimi's Thoughts

Grace

We come and we go as we wish.

We leave or might I say, we are not so keen on Him when we seem to “have it all together” and run back when we need help, need a restart or when we get stuck and don’t know which way to go.

The thing is He is always there.

I like to think that even if he didn’t start out as a jealous God, He would very easily have become one now with the way we act.

It’s amazing how His being jealous never affects the abundance of grace He has and continues to extend to us. Nothing affects His love and grace for us; not the hardness or our hearts, the magnitude of our sins or even our evil thoughts and desires.

Grace, the one thing we receive so freely but rarely extend to our fellow friends, families, neighbours, colleagues, bosses, servants and all other people around us.

As often as I receive grace from God, I hope I can extend human grace to others too.

Is there someone we can give grace to today?

Twelve

There’s a lot to be said about the number 12.

12 months in a year, 12 zodiac signs, 12 tribes of Isreal, 12 Apostles and a lot more.

The number is also said to represent perfection, entirety; completeness, healing and luck.

Today, on my 12th wedding anniversary, I feel a certain sense of beginning. I keep asking myself how something that has already started could possibly feel like a beginning.

I don’t know.

I plan to spend this entire new year creating a brand new meaning for number 12; Beginning.

Beginnings are beautiful, they make room for new creations.

Happy wedding anniversary to me and Terver

(11th anniversary message available on 11th)

I’m just younger

I find joy in my own company.

I mentally plan my alone time activities and I execute them. I frown when anyone or anything interrupts.

I dont like being disrespected.

I cry when I’m happy, I also cry when I’m sad. I just cry.

My skin glows and I look pretty even without making any effort.

I love company and then I get fed up when it goes on for too long.

I am fascinated by well spoken and written English.

I am a DIY lover.

I’m a sanguine with family and friends. To the stranger, I am antisocial.

I love my nails.

I have a nonexistent temple hair problem.

I have a very thin line between between love and indifference…it just takes one last straw to cross it.

My mom is all this too.

I am my mother’s daughter…

I am my mother, I’m just younger.

Giving Tuesday

“Mummy, why don’t we have Thanksgiving”?

This is a question i have had to answer every year for the past three years.

Having been exposed to Thanksgiving from the movies and shows he sees, my son always longs for Thanksgiving and all that comes with it, just as he sees it on television.

Although I have told him over and again how it isn’t in our tradition to celebrate Thanksgiving, today I find myself wanting to be a part of a Thanksgiving residue event.

The Tuesday following Thanksgiving has become known as Giving Tuesday. It was founded in New York in 2012 with the purpose of touching and changing lives in the community. I have never really been drawn to it, but as I listened to words of Bobby Gruenewald from today’s youversion word of the day, I felt the need to participate in my own way and in my own community.

What totally got me is the fact that my giving must not be financial. I happen to be a huge fan of the gift of Acts of Kindness.

Is this the same for you?

My sister had a suggestion for a non-financial gift, she said, ” Please let’s be generous with our smiles today. I’ve noticed people are smiling less. Country hard!
Most people will feel better when smiled at.
It won’t pay their bills but it will make them feel better for a while. And it’s worth it” .

Is there someone you can give to today? A smile, your time, a word of encouragement, a listening ear, forgiveness, love, a meal.

While we give, let us remember to keep the left hand from knowing what the right is giving and vise versa. Have a happy Giving Tuesday.

I am the one

Often in life, we find ourselves trying really hard to prove to the people in our lives that we love them. Many times they do not even ask for this proof. Some of us go ahead to show and prove with acts of kindness/service, words of affirmation, gifts and so on. Some, if not most times, these methods go unnoticed and/or unappreciated. One can only imagine the disappointment that comes with it.

For some time now, I’ve been on an emotional joy ride. Just the other day, I shared with an egroup how I used to think that God liked me…but it only recently really hit me… He really really loves me. He loves me in a way that is so amazing, I don’t need to pull out any love language.

I have a piece I’ve been writing on the elevation worship current album ‘LION’. I should have it ready in a few days. One song from that album had me reexamine my entire relationship with my maker.

I didn’t choose God, God chose me. There’s nothing I can do that would make Him hate me. Every day I wake up with breath in my lungs, it’s evidence that He has chosen me again. He loves me. He loves me. I don’t need to prove that I love Him for him to love me. His love never fails. He loves the real me, not the version I show to people.

This realisation is amazing. It changed my life.

I would recommend this song any day, not only does it sound nice, it feels good too.

2 is a crowd

I’ve probably always been in a clique without knowing it. Way back in my secondary school days, I got punished one day, along with some of my close friends. We were being punished for taking our food out of the dinning area. It was totally prohibited, but we had a few spices and garnishes and so we had wanted to enjoy the meal in the comfort of our space. While we received a week long punishment, the words we kept hearing were “your clique”. We were 7 friends, unconsciously, we preferred to do stuff together and over time, I guess it seemed like a preplanned group.

In my university days, something similar happened, by the time I had been rounding up, I realised I had kept company with a select close group the entirety of my stay. 5 years.

Some years ago, I found myself in an unconsciously formed clique again…but this is where it got different. At the precise moment when we found out we were knit, we began to make it intentional. I would like to admit that those few years we maintained an intentional group friendship were some of the best years of my adult life. We were all strange “girls”. Each of us needing to be alone sometimes…and so we always knew when to give each other space. We all respected each other’s time and privacy yet, we were in all our businesses, we looked out for each other. We made plans and we made time to carry out those plans. One that remains undone is our road trip. We never got to do certain stuff, with all 5 of us in our 30’s with families, businesses and/or jobs to attend to, it was a tough one, trying to synchronize our lives for some activities.

Looking back at all the group friendships I’ve had, I have come to realise that I feel crowded by one on one friendships. I have some of them and I love them, but I think i carry traits of a wolf. I do better in a pack. The average wolf pack size is 6…that’s just right for me.

In the absence of a pack, I always fly solo 😁.

11th

I wrote the following words for my 7th wedding anniversary, I read them again this year and found that I feel even stronger about them, 4 years later… I’m writing them again.
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

When you put a seed into the ground, it shoots above the soil, it develops leaves and begins to branch out. Its flowers begin to bloom the way they are meant to and then it bears fruit. You look at it… It’s healthy and you like it. But you wouldn’t have that smile if you didn’t take care of it. For that seed to grow and develop, it needs the right amount of water, sunlight and the right temperature as well.
We planted a seed 11 years ago and just look how well it has grown… Daily we rise to water it… When the sun gets too hot we find ways to shield it… When the temperature gets too high we find ways to cool it down… I can gladly say that I’m enjoying the daily growth and the branches and flowers and fruits that we have made so far… In another life I would still plant with you my love. I Wonder how this seed will look like 50 years from now… I guess we have to wait till then to find out.
Happy 11th anniversary sweetheart

All I want for Christmas

All over the world, Christmas is usually celebrated as a period of gift giving and receiving and a time for merry making. The 25th day of December is the generally accepted date. Christmas day is celebrated by Christians to mark the birth of Jesus Christ. Even people who do not believe in Jesus have continued to celebrate it as a cultural holiday. Children grow up, knowing that they will definitely get gifts at Christmas time.

A few days ago, my son SonTer did something that got me playing Mariah Carey’s ‘All I want for Christmas is you’. I played it so much, I started to ask myself if it had become my favourite Christmas song. My favourite Christmas song has and I think will always be ‘O Holy Night’. It gets me everytime, no matter how many renditions of the song I hear.

… Back to SonTer, he had been having a hard time falling asleep, as usual… He’s got a wandering mind too, like his mum. I had sent him to bed but about 30 minutes later he knocked on my bedroom door and asked if he could write his Christmas list. I convinced him to go back and try to fall asleep and promised him we would write the list together in the morning.

Bright and early the next day, SonTer presented his list.

Yoyo
Christmas hat
A Christmas mug
A Christmas family photo

“This is what I want for Christmas” was what he said. I looked at his list and my heart melted. I am not sure what I expected but it definitely wasn’t what he was asking for. That was when the first line of the song ( I don’t want a lot for Christmas) came to mind and I’ve been playing it since then.

When he gave the list to his dad, I could see he was as surprised as I was. We wasted no time. It’s 5 days to Christmas and we are ready. SonTer’s list has been handled appropriately and we can’t wait to give him all he wants for Christmas.

After all, he is all I want for Christmas.

A good old thing

When I was 19 years old (20 years ago) I bought 2 pieces of clothing. One was a dress that can be worn by a 2 to 3 month old baby girl, the other was a unisex pinafore jumpsuit for a 6 to 10 month old baby. I bought it for myself, for when I would have my own children. I didn’t have any children till I turned 31. I have a son, he used the pinafore jumpsuit when he was old enough to. It gave me joy to see my wish come true. I still have the dress.

The interesting part of the story is how those two pieces of clothing have become something I will always think about with a smile. In less than a year after I bought them, my eldest sister had a baby girl and I loaned the dress to her. I could have given it to her completely but I didn’t have the heart to let the dress go… besides, Suur (her daughter) would definitely outgrow it and she wouldn’t have use for it anymore… And so as soon as it didn’t fit anymore, I took it back and kept it safely.

Subsequently, my other sisters had 2 children each. The girls used the dress and the boys used the pinafore jumpsuit.

Recently I had a reason to remove the pinafore jumpsuit from storage, it is currently being used by an adorable little boy… He is very much like a son to me.

The pinafore jumpsuit and it’s current owner 😁❤️

I’ve found that I love to keep some stuff to remember loved ones by. One example is a cardigan and blanket my sister Dough brought back from university in 1998. At this point I don’t know if she gave it to me or if she just left or forgot them at home when she got married but that blanket and cardigan make me feel close to her and so I kept it. I can only imagine her shock when she realises they still exist.

I love to de-clutter a lot, but there are a few items I have a hard time throwing out, for example, I kept my husband’s cummerbund from our wedding for my son, I don’t know what use it will be when he is old enough to use it… But I would like him to have it.

Overtime I have come to realise that the older I get, the more I cherish old things that come with good stories. I sure still love new stuff but the joy of having antiques, especially the ones I have had a part in creating makes me get a feeling I cant even describe.

From the Heart

Thank you Stephanie…

A few days ago, a cousin of mine dropped by the bakery to find out about my Christmas gift offers for this year. He particularly wanted to know what he could get for different amounts. He had a list of 3 groups, each group having a certain amount budgeted per head. This got me thinking. We all really love different people in different measures, sometimes without even knowing it. Most of the time, it is this measure of love that dictates the amount of money, time and energy we put into gifting to our loved ones.

I got a gift a couple of weeks ago, I was so deeply moved by this gift. It was a mug. Yes, a mug. One would wonder why a mug could mean so much to anyone. Well, first things first, any tea lover would always appreciate a mug…but that isn’t the reason why this mug melted my heart. It wasn’t even my birthday or any special event. I just got a message from Stephanie asking me if I could send someone over to pick up something for me. My first response was shame.

Stephanie is a customer, turned friend, turned sister. We have a special bond I can’t define. I can’t even put a finger on when she became special, but she simply is… special. She recently fell seriously ill. I never went over to see her, we just kept in touch on phone. That’s why my first response was shame. I asked myself why she still cared even after I had not been there for her like I should have. Anyway that’s a story for another day.

Stehnanie is a CAKE LOVER. We would sometimes quarrel about how much cake she was eating and whenever I decided to cut her off cake for a while, she would make up stories and try to convince me to sell cake to her. It was a back and forth thing, almost every week. That is why when the mug Stephanie sent to me arrived, I was deeply moved.

It read “I ❤️ You more than CAKE”

My son’s jaw dropped when I told him who sent it. “Mummy, that means she loves you very well o” was what he said… He knows just how much she loves cake too.

Today, I made some tea in my mug and decided to share this story of love and gifting. Show love to someone this Season, let it be from the heart. I will do same.