Page 46 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 33

Art & Cultur e
Art & Culture
excuses, it would be within those four years
of training when no one was around to watch
and condemn his excuses.
But this is the reality of our lives on earth.
Things don’t always go the way we plan
them to and most times it will take an
extra push coupled with a big dose of
determination and discipline to rise or get
through.
But one scary part of excuse-making is that
every excuse is valid. At least until failure
comes knocking. There is practically no
excuse that is not valid from the point of
view of the one giving the excuse.
So, while it makes sense for the person
making the excuse to make one, it might
not necessarily be what is needed for their
growth and the growth of the community.
Life is much more than what works for us
as individuals but also what works for the
community in which we belong.
Over the years as an author and writer
of hundreds of articles, I have come to
understand that the greatest competitors we
face in our quest to manifest our true self,
is ourselves. No bigger competitor than that
voice on the inside that says you can’t do
it. Interestingly enough, just like a tree with
a double purpose, it’s the other side of that
same voice that cheers you on when no one
else is there to say keep going. The difference
will be which of the voices you have been
feeding with the food of your determination
and discipline.
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| we tell the true afrikan story
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As a co-publisher and writer on this
magazine, there are days when the only thing
that makes sense is to fold up the magazine
publication and just call it quits. It’s a free
magazine for the public but publishing it
monthly is neither cheap, free, nor without
difficulties. So, in those moments of “should
I stop” or “should I continue”, the one thing
that keeps me going is the fact that someone
out there, even if it’s one person, sees value
in the magazine and they want it to continue.
Your story might be different and your
experience different, as it should be, but we
all have the same enemy — EXCUSES.
The Exes in Our Lives
We all have exes that left our lives at one
point or the other. To some, their exes are
the wives or husbands that walked away
leaving them all alone and vulnerable.
But to some, their ex is their former jobs,
failed investments, broken families, former
successes, and various achievements that
have become excuses for not moving
forward.
So, I see excuses as “exes that life uses” to
hold us in a place while we are supposed
to move forward. “Ex” “used” is a play on
words as my own way of giving clarity to the
issue of excuses.
Most times, what we fear and for which we
create excuses are not the great unknown but
the things we already know and experienced
but which we didn’t handle properly. Then
we fall into the trap of blame games. So,
instead of learning from the experience,