As you may know/recall, Chris from Bridges Burning and I have a joint site which we started at the end of 2021. Originally, we attempted to write posts on alternate days, but then as we say, life got in the way. We continue to write on our own blogs and in turn, we reblog them onto the joint site – Aworldapartintwo.wordpress.com Today’s post was originally written for the joint blog on January 5. 2022..
“Listen – are you breathing just a little,
and calling it a life?
Mary Oliver
Today it is my turn to write a post here and have no idea what to write. Having been sitting here for an hour or so, with coffee and trusty notebook at hand, I was no further forward in determining what to write about – Head weak; brain dumb; inspiration won’t come…
So once again I decided to look back on some of the posts from when I started blogging. On November 15, 2012, I wrote about Africa. I have always been fascinated by this continent..
I have written about Kuki Gallman, her fascination with the country, moving there with her new husband, his death and subsequently the death of her beloved son in A Life Being Well Lived And then, this conservationist was in turn shot by cattle raiders on her land. Kuki Gallmann survived and still lives in Kenya. A movie was made of her life starring Kim Bassinger titled I Dreamed of Africa
I also read the book and loved the movie of Karen Blixen’s life in Africa – Out of Africa.
And now my fascination with and attraction to this continent is fuelled by Michael Stanley a duo of writers whom I follow in Murder is Everywhere.
But back to the blog post I wrote in November 2012 – I Know This Place
In that post, I talked about how words, well written, can transport one to another place. Perhaps a place never visited but somehow you feel that you know it.
On that day I had discovered Eliza at VisionandVerbs. Unfortunately that Blog no longer exists and so I can’t transport you to a place where she lives and calls home. She has a small house with three stoeps from which she has a variety of views. She talked about the village some short distance away in which the coloured community live – shacks, old abandoned cars and children running wildly about. She compared this to the other nearby village. Here there were mainly white people, well-maintained houses and gardens, and cars neatly parked away in garages.
Such a different life to mine-yours?
As her Blog can no longer be found, although I was. able to log onto it earlier today, I can’t follow this accomplished writer now.
JB WELLINGTON,
May 2, 2023
I choose how I will spend the rest of my life 