What makes life beautiful?

This is not a prescription nor is it a recipe to a delicious and beautiful life. It is an attempt to do just that!

Have you been on a war front? Not as some armed (to the tooth) army man? But as an 'armless' and harmless creature, created in the image of God, but facing imminent death or some serious injury? A cat caught on some bright and blinding light? Which kind of shears past your iris to the brain?

One day I did find myself in precisely that situation. When a grenade blew off a portion of the wall of a house that we were staying in. In the dead of the night. You wake up and you are not very sure whether it is just a bad dream or indeed the cold air hitting your face is really, in the middle of rubbles and dust. You blink hard, close your eyes, open them again and curse, and then reality jolts you that indeed you are staring at the starry sky rather than the ceiling of your room! But the last thing you remember is that you'd gone to bed in a room and slept on a comfy bed. What happened? Is what happened!

I realized such times you cannot scream. God just locks your throat! I think that is how I hear people die from shock. And the biggest challenge is that such a time, there's no big bro thing. It all depends on who recovers first and fast to comfort others. The stronger you are the faster you recover. The weaker souls in such circumstances will cry themselves hoarse.

Or just collapse in a heap at a corner to create another emergency.

You step out. Rather, you jump over the bricks and stand outside, on the well-manicured lawn. The best place at that odd hour of the night compared to an upturned bed. And a collapsing house. Probably. You just don't want to be near it. It represents all that you want to forget.

You cannot ask what happened. For who are you asking. Who really knows. All of you were sleeping.. Or you were expected to be sleeping unless you come from a night running pedigree.

It dawned on us that the wall had been blown off with a grenade from some characters who were not happy with the owner of the house. Did that soul ever think of some innocent soul in that house? Clearly not. Adobe character.

First things first. Call back home and inform them you are escaped dead by a whisker but you're breathing. But they didn't know you were in trouble. Yeah, but then I could not be talking now if God did not protect me. And who knows, the crazy and sick can decide to haul another one. You cannot tell of the impact of the second one. You tell them how you cherish them, how you love them to Timbuktu and back. You mean every word; you've just discovered that life is too short - it can be cut short by some misogynist - who for sure did not consult God on your timing. You imagine you're making your last speech - they can include those words in the eulogy, you know. Last words spoken to last born son.

After sobering up, (for you were intoxicated with fear) you ask yourself: why am I here? Experience? Money? Comfort? You don't have a convincing answer. Any of these mean nothing now. That is the time you want to get back to your country, so badly. Even via road. Or even walking - just walk away from this.

This the time you ask yourself: what makes life worth living for? Clearly, it is not money, experience, prestige, fame etc. It is having inner peace and security: the knowledge that I'm well, safe and secure. When I sleep there is a high probability that I will wake up - a probability which tends to 1 but it is not an absolute. This applies to yourself as well as your dear ones, in your life. If they are not well, you are not well - you cannot have peace. You cannot be still.

This reminds me of the Post Election Violence (PEV) of 2007/2008. When a KES 50 airtime scratch card was going for KES 100. And yet not available. That is the time you realize that money is absolutely nothing, without goods or services to be bought with. The reason why our ancestors thrived with barter trade - without complaining. Such times make you appreciate that your neighbour's peace contributes a lot to you having peace and living peacefully. Added ad infinitum, there will be peace in the world when you and I have peace and our neighbours have peace.

This is the same case at our workplace.

Do you have inner peace? Despite the probable turmoil (internal and/or external)? Can you have that peace when all is failing around you, sometimes literally? How can you have this inner peace when nothing is peaceful or when there are 'terrorists' within your office precincts ensuring you enjoy no quiet time?

Be still and know that I'm God. Might apply to some and not others. But you wanna have some faith in some deity, more so when things get thick, as sometimes they'll.

Most importantly, do not compromise on what gives you inner peace - that one which makes you sleep like a baby.

NB: This posting is also available on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-makes-life-beautiful-davis-onsakia/