… a friend once told about this beautiful girl he was keen on going out with in his Uni days. So he had been pursuing without much luck. It also looked like everyone else was interested in this girl. On this particular day he went to her room, still trying to get his message across but the girl continues to appear disinterested. At a point the girl stood up and started drawing the curtains close, he figured he will be thrown out soon, mentally he plotted his escape, knowing how moody and temperamental the girl can be. To his utter surprise once the curtains were drawn, the girl beckoned to him that they should make out, he could not believe the change in his fortune. He rose to the occasion at the speed of lighting.
People draw the curtain for different reasons, some to ensure privacy from prying eyes, other times to signify the end of the day and prepare for bed once it is dark. Some have been known to misread the time because it is dark, assuming it is late, they start drawing the curtains and engaging in the night time rituals, putting on pyjamas, brushing teeth, washing face, bedtime stories, before bed prayers etc, not realising that it is not bedtime yet, it is winter time at it gets dark early. It is only 3pm! and there is still a lot more day left in the day.
Sometimes we buy a gizmo, or a watch, a toy, a phone etc and it serves us perfectly fine and we are extremely pleased with our buy and thoroughly enjoy it, but a day comes and it starts to slow down and it is not as fast, as sharp or as clear as it use to be, we are disappointed and then stops, we are crushed. We pack it aside and sentence it to final execution, we draw the curtains on it. Until, one day we had a visitor nosing around and notice our gizmo in its sentenced cell and ask why, we explained that it had stopped and that was when he told us that all we needed was a new battery. He drew the curtains open, got the gizmo out, put a new battery and it was good to go, alive and agile as new. He explained that it came from the manufacturer with a long life battery but not an everlasting one. The battery needed to be changed, there was still a lot of life left in the old dog!
How many of us start drawing the curtains early because it is winter? forgetting that winter is just a season and that the darkness that ensues is not a true reflection of the time of the day. Rather than keeping our eyes steady on the time we get swayed by the darkness. People go through painful seasons of darkness and start to draw the curtains and get ready for bed, we don’t have to do that, winter is a season, it will pass, let us keep our gaze on the clock, let us know our timing and seasons that we might apply ourselves accordingly.
We are tired, we are pained, we are aching, this part is not working properly on our body, and so is that part, neither is that part, we are low on energy, our waist line is expanding, hair is receding, heart is not pumping efficiently, back is stiff, knees are giving, blood pressure is playing up, insomnia is hanging around etc and the list goes on, we are definitely slowing down and we assume it is time to start to draw the curtains, we start to pack our suitcases, and begin saying our goodbyes. Not so soon!
Someone once told me, that he had met quite a number of people in their 50’s who had started the descend. They had started packing up because a few slowing down in their bodies, businesses or just life in general. At the same time, we read stories and meet people who turned their lives around at these age, who started new businesses, new ventures, new projects, new charities, made a new name for themselves etc. But how did they do it? Someone ask. They put new batteries in themselves, they recharged. They realised that the battery they were born with had just ran out of charge. They got into the gym, they changed their diet, they got close to their God, they got rid of dead weight, they travelled light, they did their research, they put some hot coal back in thier loins and they got fired up and did exploits.
There is not doubt that at some point, it will truly be night time and we have to draw the curtains, the gizmo will truly be spent and we can’t keep putting in new batteries, but that time is still a long way away, it is just 3pm, don’t touch the curtains, and get some new batteries!
Beautiful Ivory 