At the crossroad

Mama Ki had just dropped her kids at school. She was running late to work like had been happening for months. Her life for some reason seemed to be bursting at the seams- and she hadn’t been handling it too well. She felt excessively fatigued and the walls in her life were caving in on her. A sharp scream brought her back to reality. She alighted from the car. It was her elder son screaming. She had almost run down over his younger brother. She couldn’t believe it. She had almost reversed into her youngest child. In her rush she hadn’t even moved from where she had dropped them hence the near miss of a tragic accident. All she could do was kneel down and start wailing as she comforted the distressed children. She hugged them for half an hour as she apologized profusely. She called the head teacher and excused her children from attending school that day. She went home with them and calmed the poor souls down. Later during the day she wrote her resignation letter. She said goodbye to employment.

He is crossing Uhuru park from Serena hotel to get to Anniversary towers minding his own business. Then something peculiar happens. A grown-up Chokora stops him “Boss nipe nare.” He had been struggling with smoking for over one and a half decades. It had been periods of stopping, then starting, then withdrawal symptoms, then pity but never really stopping. On this one day, that he was not gaffing he is asked for a light. Something in him ticks off: he gives the guy the matchbox he had and all the cigarettes he had in his pocket. He never smoked another cigarette in his life.

She had been drinking excessively that Friday. She decided against better judgment to drive under the heavy influence of alcohol. She doesn’t know where the lady came from .She had to do a sobering swerve on the road like she had never done before. She did not know her car had such power. She didn’t hit the lady but she rolled over and rolled over and then some more. The lady she almost hit got her help fast and she was saved from the wreckage in time. She suffered only a broken hand and pain that was quickly healed by pain killers. The day she saw what had been left of her car she passed out. It was the last time she drank alcohol.

They had been dating close to two years. They were alright but the girl had a feeling something was amiss. Typical of our fast paced life she ignored it. She thought she had a too vivid imagination. Then one day while going through a normal argument (she thought actually the matter was getting unnecessary attention) he smashed her phone into the wall and had a tirade of bitter ugly words to say about her, her parents and friends. She was aghast and closed the door to that relationship tight. That thing she had been feeling was for real.

A crossroad is defined by the Oxford dictionary as” A point at which a crucial decision must be made which will have far-reaching consequences” The examples given above are extreme cases of how people make decisions at their crossroads. Fortunately for them, the signs were extremely clear. And they had reached the point in which they had to make a decision. Am sure it wasn’t easy. 

The bible is littered with examples of people who were given signs that they could not miss. The burning bush, Jonah being swallowed by the shark, the death of Job’s children and building of the ark e.t.c. In modern days we often see all manner of wars, global warming and depletion of the natural resources bestowed upon us. Clear signs that let us know that if we don’t do something about them, the outcome will be of catastrophic proportions.

Some crossroads are subtle we would have to use your whole body, brain and might to see them. The way our child(ren) look at us when we are walking out of our homes, the crackling of our knees when we walk, all our clothes no longer fitting, the never ending fatigue, debt and aloneness among others. We are standing at a crossroad and we don’t even know. 

Then something triggers action from us. A picture, a sudden and unexpected downpour of rain, the laughter of children, reading a book, listening to a song, talking to a stranger, or just sheer quietness. You are at the crossroad and have to cross the road at that exact point. The consequences are always far reaching.

Then the realization hits you that sometimes in life you cannot always define time in years, or friendship in love, or wisdom in the number of years spent in school. That we just need to lift one leg and place it in front of the other to start walking from our crossroad intersection to the future which though might not be a guarantee is full of hope and endless possibilities.

To all those at a crossroad like me, I wish you well.  I have my foot in front of the other-I am starting my journey to new lands.

Sojourner.