Lupita’s 5 year process: From a dwarfing dream to a beautiful reality

This was quite the inspiration ✊🏻

African Girl

At age 25 (2008), Lupita writes of her disappointment, feeling lost, unfocused and afraid that she would never figure out her purpose.

On August 23rd 2008, she journals afraid tho on a flight to Yale – “I have this dream and desire [to be an actor] and yet it dwarfs me – but it’s MY dream, God dammit – I made it up!! How can what I dreamed up defeat ME?!”

On May 4th 2012, (4 years later) she journals that she now wanted “To make meaningful films that affect change in people’s understanding of and commitment to the world we live in.” And to visit New Orleans for at least a week.

On May 13th 2013 ( 1 year later) she booked 12 Years A Slave and on June 6th would be in Louisiana working on the film for 5 weeks.

5 years through her process, she bags an…

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tantrums- is it really terrible twos?

tantrums- is it really terrible twos?dealing w/ tantrums where spanking can’t work. Interesting.

newordinary

As I read about babies and how they grow, the one inevitable thing I always come along is the terrible twos. I knew I had to prepare myself, but I had sometime before I had to deal with that. So when my then 1 year 2 month old son started throwing tantrums, I was taken aback. I wondered if he was a genius, because they don’t start until they are 2 years right? Well we are now 1 year 5 months and still dealing with tantrums. When he started, I was tempted to go at it as my mother would, the ‘chapa’, spanking.

I had started chapa before he was 1 year because he started walking early and could understand simple instructions like No, that is not right, stop etc. and also the walking meant he could access corners around the house. So when he started playing with the oven…

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Sunday Post 169: Dear Sarah

Really gives you something to think about.

The Real Fuller House

I received an email last week from Sarah. She’s a mom with a chronic illness. At some point in the future, she will need a liver transplant. If she doesn’t get one, she won’t make it.

In the correspondence, Sarah told me she was trying to live each day to the fullest. She shared that she was beginning to preserve her thoughts for her husband and daughter – just in case. She then asked me if there were things I would suggest she do now in the event she isn’t around ten years from now.

It made me stop and think.

As I pondered my response, I put some thoughts together on what I’d do differently had I known ten years in advance that Lisa would die.

 Dear Sarah,

 It sounds like you are approaching your life in a strong and courageous way. Of course, our situation was…

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FAFA RED CARPET: What to Wear

fitndiscover

The Fashion for Peace Gala 2014 is slated for this weekend, on Saturday 31st at the Oval Rooftop, Westlands. Read more about it here. This will probably be the biggest and most glamorous fashion event of the year with locally reknown designers gracing the runway with their collections and a few others from the region. As expected, everyone is geared up for it with designers doing last minute touch-ups of their collections and all fashion enthusiasts shopping around for outfits to wear. But what exactly should one wear at a Red Carpet event?

We’ve seen the Oscars and the Golden Globes Awards where celebrities have been putting their best foot forward for fear of being listed in the ‘Worst Dressed Category.’ Stylists have been having an uphill tasks of ensuring their clients achieve the best look by liaising with designers to get the best fit for them. This years’…

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Reading Relief in Motherhood

Interesting book for mums.

4 Mothers

Reading through the essays inThe M Word (edited by Kerry Clare of Pickle Me This)offered rare glimpses into the lives of many women imprinted in very different ways by motherhood.  Honesty seeps through them, along with incisive depictions of pains, prejudices, and (less frequently) the pleasures of motherhood.  There is layer upon layer here – no fluff – and the pages just keep turning.

My closest friends tend to be thinkers, and I’m lucky enough to have been part of some raw and real conversations about motherhood, so the intimacy of the stories presented in The M Word almost felt familiar.  Many of the mothers I know very well have deeply textured feelings about being moms, the kind that don’t fit into neat categories.  I have had my share of these, particularly but not exclusively related to the massive transition (inadequately) called my first pregnancy and birth.  Being…

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Sunday Post 160: They’re Getting Older

#Introspection

The Real Fuller House

It’s interesting to watch your parents get old.  I imagine my kids feel the same way.

One of my “second” moms growing up died recently.  It broke my heart.  Doesn’t seem like so long ago when we were vacationing together at Litchfield beach – playing cards, sitting by the pool, eating dinner at that humongous picnic table.

One year when in my teens, we were playing a huge game of Spoons.  It is a card game where you work to get four of a kind.  There are one fewer spoons scattered on the table than there are players.  The first person getting all four of one card quietly grabs a spoon and then, anyone can snatch one.  The player left without a spoon is the loser.

On this particular day I was rushed out of the bathroom and threw on a robe – just a robe – don’t ask me why. …

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Supporting a Hero

Please do!

Pray for Persecuted Muslims

Quite sad. #PrayForTheMuslims

Makadara Train Hell on Valentine’s

Hahaha! This one made me smile. All my Kenyans will relate to this.

Black Roses

The only other thing worse than having nobody wish you lovey-dovey sweet nothings on Valentine’s Day (V-Day) is taking a Makadara Train. Trust me. Despite coming across dashing red outfits, rose flowers and disgustingly in love couples, my V-Day had been awfully ordinary. For a spicy ending and to dodge traffic and rain, after work, I decided to take a train accompanied by a colleague (Debrah).

Setting out to relish every second of this short ride, I marvel at the cheap tickets (KES 30 for one passenger). The ticket sellers are swift as they pass change and tickets back and forth, to the mob of people, all hurrying in. My heart skips a beat in excitement and anticipation as I hold onto my ticket. We rush into the Railways Station and leisurely settle on the stone benches. As we wait for our train to arrive, Debrah tells me train stories…

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Sunday Post 140: Better Than OK

Too true.

The Real Fuller House

When Lisa was diagnosed with colon cancer, a man from work came up to me and said, “My son had cancer.  It was the best thing that ever happened to our family.  It brought us closer together than we’d ever been before.”

You’re a nut!  I thought to myself politely nodding.  His son did live.

I found myself in a similar position to that man this week.  I had a conversation with a friend who was going through a very difficult time.  The table had turned.  I was now the encourager.  And I did my job.

But the interesting thing was that I believed, because of my experience, that she would be OK.  Although her situation seemed dire, I could genuinely see her bad news as an opportunity.  A time for her to turn over a new leaf, to move forward.

THAT’S NOT ME!  My glass is half empty.  What’s…

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