Reflections

…on a crazy, difficult, interesting, sometimes scary 2025, the year we turned 70.

We were born in 1955 a pivotal year marked by major Cold War shifts, namely the Warsaw Pact and West Germany joins NATO.  Winston Churchill resigns and the Civil Rights movement with Rosa Parks’ defiance in Montgomery is born. Notably Albert Einstein and James Dean pass away.

Apartheid South Africa saw major anti-apartheid resistance with the Congress of the People adopting the Freedom Charter outlining a vision for a non-racial democracy and the Black Sash, a non-violent white women’s resistance organization is founded.

Rob Louw, Gerrie Coetzee, Shaleen Surtie-Richards, Nbongeni Ngema, Peter Kirsten and Bantu Holomisa arrived on this planet.  

So did George, in the Princess Hospital in Hillbrow and Gail, in a rural cottage Hospital in Maclear.

Bill Haley and His Comets belted out Rock around the Clock tonight and Elvis Pressley sang Jail House Rock.

On 10 December 1970  I underwent open heart surgery, the surgeon in attendance was the famous Christiaan Neethling Barnard.  I am struggling to wrap my head around the fact that this happened fifty five years ago, three years after the first heart transplant was performed.  I remain deeply grateful to medical science and the men and women in this field who work tirelessly to transform, heal and enable folks like me to live a full and happy life.

In Twenty Twenty-five, I had a battery change (my term for a pacemaker replacement), a month later George underwent a triple bypass and valve repair, a few weeks later had to face having a prostrate scrape!  Three weeks ago I noticed that one of my freckles had changed colour and shape, I had it removed – and thankfully the results came back negative.

We survived, we have each other and family and friends who love and care for us as we do them.  

We are deeply, deeply grateful.

This remarkable prose caught my eye and I thought I would share it with you.

A sobering read and one I will cherish, it is a reminder, to slow down, change my perspective and treat my soul, to long trips where the open road speaks beauty to the heart, celebrating moonrise in the Karoo, inviting friends to poetry and music evenings.  

Yes, and to follow the below-mentioned instructions.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR HAVING A SOUL  – Joseph Fasano

Take it out in the rain sometimes.

It has vast invisible wings that gather dirt

and need rinsing.

When it tries to kill you

that is because you’ve forgotten 

to let it look into someone’s eyes 

for longer than a minute.

It needs that the way of a bee needs nectar

in the early morning dew.

Every so often take it on a journey.

Let it read long, hard books

and let it stare into the depths of the sea

Yes, you can give it chips and whiskey.

But from time to time let it kneel

in a place that is holy 

like the simple cathedral of willows.

All it wants is to live, to keep becoming.

Nourish it, and it puts down roots, it opens.

But starve it, and the mind, the flesh empty;

the world breaks down: symphonies go unwritten;

the rockets fall; the children die in flames

Listen.  It is not too late 

to wake it. Say the names

of the wild, the forgotten things

bluebird, red wolf, robin; violet, child, clover

You cannot save the world, but you can open 

the window for the trapped wren in the cellar.

Read a book to a blind man, to your father,

Tell a child you do believe her anger

Make your life the first life that you save

I don’t know about you, but I am certainly going to heed this wonderful advice.