Brewing of the sufi soul

The hype – the huff puff to prepare for the long awaited extended weekend festive holidays – how exhilarating!!! With best dishes coming out of long storage, and shopping trolleys rattling along the isles filling up with luxury items that are reserved for family gatherings. The traumas of yesterday and yesteryears becomes long forgotten. Hair wash days, spring cleaning and the smell of freshly baked delicacies – Yes! For sure family fun days are here once again!

And then they arrive – car doors banging shut, lots of excited voices entering the once peaceful home and the day has just begun. So why is it that we always experience that momentary stifling feeling? Is it because we somehow catch a hint of a scent of past dramas in the air – and that is how all holiday dramas begin? Each one pairing with their favorite conversationists, and kids piling together in a room to collapse on the large double bed – lots of screaming and hooting laughter fills the air.

Somewhere someone is screaming for the braai stand to be brought out and amidst the elders catch up on cutting-edge gossip – There is always a drama looming waiting to spring on the festive hearts and coffee cups ready for washing. You know the drama – it starts of as a cheesy issue – and builds into a horrendous tangle of “he said”, “she said”, and ends with “I want to have nothing to do with this issue…” always spoken by the one who probably started the drama in the first place – and be sure of this fact that even if he did not start it – he definitely set it alight pushing it to the ultimate family splitting life threatening performance hosting both tragedy and an indication of spectacular cyclic disaster – So where do you fit in?

Are you the one standing in the side-line shaking your head from side to side – taking the side of anyone who even glances at you for support? Or are you the one prancing in the centre of the drama reliving every moment so that the others miss nothing of the already tangled documentary series families live out every time they try to get together for another one of their side-splitting, hair raising weekends. I personally wait for the fat lady to sing before bringing the whole drama to a grand finale – Be quick and smart enough to put on the kettle and bring on the delicacies and desserts – Now that’s the drama we all want to be a part of. You probably recognise this scene. Where the younger generations gather together to run to kitchen amidst all giggles. Plotting and planning how they will patch up the moment just so that they can get a few more moments of life bonding tete-a-tete trying to avoid the ice-cream spilled on the floor by the families last borne.

Sounds all too familiar neh! So…. How to end a drama? Whilst delicacies and desserts brings the tears to a standstill, shrinking tempers to the size of a tot, lets freeze and focus on the drama waiting to unfold on the drive back. If you don’t want to hear the whole story again, minion style – then grab this one liner and shoot for the bull in the eye. Tell them dramas are a part of life and the quicker they can get over it the faster they can get together to create more memories. Thing is… the most beautiful things in life are not just things…. They’re people and places – memories and pictures – happiness represented in heart felt feelings and many, many moments of smiles and laughter. So… here’s to all those Sufi souls – who always remember to bring the desserts!  Stay blessed through all dramas. Regardless of what they will say – all dramas will come to an end. And nogal definitely before the next long weekend!

I salute those of you that made it past the age of twelve without ending life. Hi! My name is Imaan and this is my story. A broken relationship – a damaged heart – and here I stand a few months later… this is how it all began. It was a relationship that was doomed from the beginning, but one that brought the much needed growing pains to the party. Perhaps that is why developmental experiences of first time relationships are prized possessions. All I remember needing through these phases that broke me whilst knitting together a new purposeful destination was, how much I wanted to hang onto the mind that was feeding me with the emotions that increased my hurt – whilst consistently feeding me with grief, sorrow, and sadness. I know it makes my failed relationship all the more dramatic – but let’s face it – every one of us is guilty of committing this crime.

So let me walk you down the dreary path of suffering that I took with a spoonful of sugar coated advice that poured in from all my well-wishers – and it is with hope in my heart I beseech the reader of this article to handle the moment in a more graceful manner when their turn arrives. Readers out here may not have realised it but the writer of every storyline is in the hands of predestination. Nothing happens in this the lower world without first being brilliantly planned in the upper worlds. This is the great universal power’s way of telling us that if we do not use the moment presented to us to focus on the mystery package handed over to us and deal with it, it will continue to feed us with experiences to grow us into the greater person we are meant to become. And let me warn you – predestination is not intimidated by our over emotional tantrums. The objective of life is to graduate you into awareness of the higher destiny written for every soul – you will be targeted until you are moulded into the new you, you are meant to echo.

I found that when I fought the process it crushed me again and again until I could breathe no more – and when finally I lay my head down on my pillow to accept defeat, it fed me with all creativeness I needed to become motivated enough to move forward – to a place where I could formulate a structured plan. Provided off course that I was up to listening. Now… if you are asking me for a quick short cut solution then let me counsel you now – life is not an app that you can download all set up and running – life hacks…. Now that is what you need. And this is how I handled myself through my daunting process.

Take a moment to realise that this is your awakening. It is for you a prearranged revival, a reviewed plan of the divine intervention not meant as a destruction. Then quick…. Find yourself a facilitator. An architect of life that will immediately set about to reorganise your future for a far greater success. You can alternatively work your way out of the chaotic turmoil with wounds to the heart and a mind involved in new relationships with cycles of trauma – now order, now disorder! This is the infamous path of suffering the past generations took – or – you can hack your way out through the skilful talents provided for your administration by the makers of your upper destiny.

It’s time for each one of us to recognise that during our stormy moments all we are tested on is how we will deal with each situation – not how much trauma the situation has dealt to us. Here’s to brewing that Sufi Wine…if you will be irritated by every rub how will you ever be polished!