Potential - A letter to the gifted

I am not even sure of how to address you as a young person with great potential, talent and intelligence. A young person with beauty and spark, the brilliant one who is always right. I have dealt and seen young people with so much potential like yourself during my school years and also during my entrepreneurial life, the world produces them in big numbers daily and will continue to do, so you and I aren't special really. There is so much people with potential and many will die without that potential realised because they are not willing to learn and definitely to serve, so writing this I know you will ask who made me an expert but I am not, I am one that has walked the road, carry the scars and that may not mean anything in your world but in the one we all live in, it counts for everything. 

Many that you see successful out there will tell you that, talent will propel you to a greater hight but it is discipline that will sustain and keep you there. Our failure is in our arrogance, the inability to humble ourself and pay the dues. Ofcourse we feel much smarter than everyone but the truth is if we were then we wouldn't be where we are because the world is actively looking for those that are different to everyone, the one's who carry brilliant ideas and rewards them with patience and greatness. We often feel faster, stronger, cleverer, prettier, more deserving than everyone else but time has taught me that there is always someone out there that has it more than us and mostly want it more than we do, so where does this put us?

You probably will reach your dreams, you will become who you aspire to be if you know who you want to be. But the biggest question is not on whether you will make it but rather will you stay there, on top? In life there are no short cuts, work hard and earn it, beauty can only get you in bed with someone who probably don't even care where you will end up, learn from your failures, be humble, not all people will like you, when things are well your world will be full of cheerleaders but the minute you go down all will flee and not even take your calls. Many have already closed this letter, some will respond with emotions than applying their mind, but someone's life will be impacted and changed, that is a choice. I don't know much but I am certain that principled efforts produce positive results.

Man to Man - Letter to my younger brother

Oh Brother

How I wished this day never came, a day where I try to give you guidance and pretend as if I know or have figured it out. But well I realise that dad is not going to do it, I have since been waiting for him to do it with me, no, no actually I have since waited for him to read me a bedtime story or was it to teach me to kick a soccer ball? no wait I remember now - it was for him to come and see my school report. See I can't have you waiting, I cannot let you go through the hurt. I cannot let you turnout like me.

Every-time when you are angry at me you point out that I have never made time to play with you, to be a brother, I'm sorry but you needed a father more than a brother and I had to choose a role. Now, man to man brother, I have made so much mistakes in my life which I wouldn't want you to go through. Writing this letter I risk a lot of things and your respect for me being the first, but your well-being is much more important than how you see me. In my mistakes many have been hurt, lives changed and my life? well that is not important at this stage. While growing up this is what i have learned and need to share with you.

Love gets confusing more as you grow and at a stage it moves out of the heart into the mind, where you need to start doing what is right and forget a bit about what you feel. You will meet many women all different with very special attributes, it will get confusing to you as your body will begin dictating over your mind, try to remember that pleasure lasts minutes the wrongs you do will hurt others for a lifetime. Little brother you will be disrespected and maybe cheated on, never raise your hand to any woman, I have and the results where not an increase in respect but hatred. Love and its pleasures will bring kids in your life and at that stage you become a father and not a boyfriend so in your anger you cannot remove her out of your life. Being a father is difficult, it is not about you nor how you feel but about the life you have brought in the world. The richer you get things don't get easier they get harder, more challenges and troubles, don't add women in your life but wisdom with success. Forgive easily otherwise you introduce the worst cancer in your life and it will consume you. When you help others do not expect them to thank you, be grateful if they do. Spare some time to enjoy the beautiful thing in life, play in the rain, walk bare feet on wet grass, listen to the ocean sing, spend time with those you love lest they forget who you are beneath the hard-work. My brother learn each day and teach others.

Take time in life to think of yourself, love yourself, leave a bit of care for you to also enjoy it. Emptiness is the most painful space in one's heart, fill your heart with love, remember I love You. My brother break the chain

Letter to my naked sister

Hi

I know I have no right to say anything but truth is I don't care about any rights because I am writing this letter because I care, I care about your wellbeing, about how you present yourself and about how you feel inside. I find myself too often taking our photos when we were kids to remind myself of a self respecting proud young girl that was defined by her character, personality, beautiful smile, creativity and the intelligence that use to put young unfocused boys in their place.  Well I often have to visit our family memory box because every week there is a photo of you trending from the weekend event you went to and every week the dress gets shorter and tighter. 

Yes it is none of my business alright and you don't tell me how to dress but are you not proud to point at me in a place full of people and say "that is my brother?", well maybe that's all I wish for, don't you think i also deserve it? Maybe all I long for is to hear guys whispering words that reflect your humanity, intellect and flawless beauty but all that I hear when they look at you is "damn look at that ass" and "If i get a chance I'll tap that ass so hard", maybe I long just for you to be seen as a woman and not a piece of meat you present yourself to be, but maybe that is too much to ask of you. All I wish for is for everyone to know how great you are in science, how many amazing inventions you have come up with in technology, the great piece of poetry you wrote and to hear the melody of the piano chords from Bach compositions you play flawlessly. 

Names cross my mind like Rosa Parks, Hatshepsut, Florence Nightingale, Jane Addams, Ruth Fulton Benedict, Queen Modjadji, Angela Davis, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Waries Dirie, Maya Angelou, Shukria Barakzai,  and Mom. Who are you sister? what defines you? are you only your bum, your boobs? In the era of great women rising above all the odds are you going to get internet hits only by showing your overly sexualised bum to the world? Is sex the only thing you can offer to the world? Is it the size of your boobs and not the size your mind that will dominate your history, oh dear sister have your dreams and vision of greatness turned as short as the dress you are wearing? Oh dear sister have your prayers turned to being about a man coming your way to guarantee a future we use to dream of every time we closed our eyes? oh dear sister have I failed you by posting pictures of naked movies and music stars on my bedroom door, the naked women magazine I hid underneath my bed and the big breasted women video tapes I stacked in my closet, well that is not who I hoped you become, they were just fantasies of a foolish young boy. I'm Sorry, now can I please have my sister back....

What Changed? - A letter to the boy I used to be

Tick tock, the sound that marks the passing of my youth as time gathers momentum and races away taking me to a place of strange feelings and foreign visions, this is a letter to the boy I use to be.

Hi there, I hope you are still there somewhere, that you still exists and your challenges didn't destroy you. I am always inspired by your winning spirit, how you fought the odds you were faced with and still remained fearless. my eyes fill up with tears each time I walk a mile in your shoes. I realise how much your pain has become my makeup, I am a product of your misfortune, the mirror of your anger. I envy you, a boy that made a man. I wish i came before you so i may have created a better mould of whom we become. 

The man I am at times wishes to be a boy you are, there was so much life in you, not much possessions but so much love and happiness. So much I wanna learn from you, how you could just love so unconditionally, forgive so easily, give willingly and generously when you have nothing. I wish to go into your heart and inherit the feelings of loving beyond the pain, the joy in loyalty, the warmth in belonging and realise the loneliness in pride.

I fought so much to become the man I am, I fought so hard and forgot to enjoy the boy your are. I only realised how unkind life treated you but was blind to your fulfilment, satisfaction and joy so I started fighting to take us to a place in life where we are in control, where we have belongings and power. A place where people will envy us, I gave you all that but i took from you what I can never give back. I took from you Love, joy, satisfaction, humility, I removed from you your  relationships, family, your kids, loved ones and I lost all of it somewhere on this journey. I traded your happiness for all that surrounds me not who surrounds me.   But still I ask "What Changed"?

To "The One" who got away - Letter to my Ex

I am not sure who to call you, your real name has faded from my mind cause it was never who I referred to you as. But also your pet-name had been replaced by the insults and names that where thrown between us during this bad time that has seemingly replaced great moments in time. "The One who got away", is it you or me? does it even matter anymore? We have spent so much time to figure out who is right or wrong, but is it important? See these are all the questions we needed to perhaps ask ourselves.

I am completely confused most of the time as I no longer know what is real and when it is creation of my imagination, did we have all those happy moments or is it just my mind playing tricks on me? When the world stood still each time we kissed, when positions meant no greater value than being in each others arms, when special little moments where more valuable than a holiday. If all this happened then we were lucky to have experienced such. 

Well if we were this happy then why are we apart? what changed? I was going to write this letter to tell you where you went wrong but I have just realised where I have went wrong and maybe that is what matters, I will acknowledge my contribution to our pain as that is all i'm entitled to. A man is suppose to protect and I have failed to protect you because I focused so much on owning you, consumed by making you mine. Put you in a glittering cage and hang you on top of my high chair so you can sing only for me. My providing for you became my biggest focal illusion as all I begun providing became material and stopped providing the care, the understanding, the smile and the joy. The love turned into an obsession, I started loving you to death, your death. I took a journey on a road that would one day have taken you away not only from me but everyone who loves you so much, the hand that was meant and expected to provide you shade in the scorching sun when raised became the hand that would strike you without hesitation, a fist that was suppose to be raised in your honour and provide you the strength became your most feared vision just before you shut your eyes hard and hope not to wake up again. I started quantifying all I gave in love and measured it up to the respect you gave me, to the efforts you made, the mistakes you committed. Forgiving became more difficult with each mistake committed, I measure and you weighed less.

We have hurt each other, let ourselves down. We have proved naysayers right. We have given love a bad name, we became a dream turned nightmare. But for as long as it lasted we were unstoppable, inseparable, a force, amazing and had a great run. This is one letter i wanna go on writing but just as i get to this part I realise we don't even talk to each other anymore, we begun keeping our eyes wide open around each other cause there was no more trust and as we blinked, like a great magician the love disappeared. . . .