It’s been a while since I last posted anything. Months even, as you will attest from the history. If I am honest, this is not how it was supposed to be. It was not what I envisioned when I started and dropped midway through a Google Analytics class. Nor was it what I imagined when I posted my thoughts on 2021.
If your year so far has been anything like mine-it has involved loss, the loss of loved ones during this pandemic made worse by travel restrictions and making it hard sometimes to accept that they are really gone. It has involved uncertainty-not knowing if this week you would be working from home, or if vaccines would be mandated for work or church service, or simply even if you would be able to travel.
And in this roller coaster-I will be the first to admit that at times, I coasted. At times, I just operated in life from a zoned-out place one day at a time, and at times, it was really frustrating to not be able to line all my ducks in a row. It was disappointing, to wake up one day and find hundreds of fish floating dead in my fish pond-killed by the very water that enables them to live. It was frustrating to see my projects stutter, only to crash and with that, know that a sizeable chunk of my funds was done for. And as I said earlier, it has been in many ways a hard year.
Nevertheless, as the wise say, in every season, there is something to learn, and there is something to be grateful for. In my case, the most prominent blessing is the imminent birth of my daughter. Am I ready? Is anyone really ever? I am excited, nervous and feel like I am living a dream. Second, is how I have been getting more clarity about my life, and how I am learning to embrace time-tested wisdom about life. Advice such as get a mentor-which often I heard, and often I convinced myself that maybe I really did not need one. Advice to focus on habits – because the future is really determined by the mundane day-to-day habits we employ in our lives.
And as for the lessons, there are many. But in their swarm, a few critical ones are the reasons I am calling this post “rebirthing”
The first is this – I cannot settle for a gospel without the demonstrated power of God. Way too many people are dying, bedridden, condemned to death by the limit of modern medicine and I simply do not believe that this is the will of God. Covid19 deaths are not the will of God. Cancer is not the will of God. At some point, I simply must see through my own hands the manifest power of God destroy the works of the evil one-just as He did when Jesus was alive. At some point, human need must meet divine providence through my obedience.
The second is all about focus. Try as I might, I am not the Flash. I have 24hrs, that I live in at ordinary human speed and I cannot do everything on my own. Husband. Child of God. Gardener. Farmer. Landscaper. Writer. Web designer. Graphic Designer. Blogger. Novelist. Metallurgist. Work Management Stream Lead. Fitness Enthusiast. Bible Scholar = This is too long a list of roles I have. It is too long a list of things I have tried to do on my own. More than anything, it is critical for me to narrow down my focus – to delegate some of these roles and remain with the vital few, that elementary 20% of priority that will deliver 80% of the key results I am aiming for in my life.
Elementary the lessons might be, but profound and different will the results be. At least, for me, for this website, and for its future. At some point in the future, I will migrate from this hosted WordPress platform to a more customized, self-built platform-whatever the developer will advise is best. I have completed the first draft of my first fiction novel – and I hope to have it up and running on this site within the next 6 months. That will not be the only change, but what I can promise is that in due course, you will see this site change shape.
Gardener, Farmer, Landscaper – that I will probably outsource to. Whilst I (I really mean we – me and my wife – probably 99% her though) may keep the vision and direction, we simply need to get better at building a good team if this is to work. As for Saturdays and the conflict between Six Sigma, Python, Blogging, and novel writing – that war will be won by the latter 2. I have always been a writer, and no matter where I am in life, I will write.
That is just a snapshot of the rebirth that is happening in me and about to begin on this site. I am curious about you. Have you gone through a rebirth this year as well? Have you reset your priorities this year as you realized that not everything is equally important? What is your story this year? Feel free to share your story in the comments section below.
Selah.