Hye Mom? Chimwewmwe Nkhoma

As I held wife’s hand, I looked into her eyes and told her that it had been my long awaited dream to have a daughter who looked just like her. And there she was, a princess coming in to this world as we know it. Let us pause this scene right here. I don’t know about you but I've been here before, it’s familiar ground. Sometimes I close my eyes and think really hard, revisit this moment when I first stepped into the world. It’s all coming back to me now.

My story is typical and as always started with boy meets girl, and yep there I was, a young great bundle of joy. My parents haven’t told me yet of the moment I was born, I guess it’s because I haven’t asked but I'm almost certain there was a great crowd watching from the specially designed terrace within the hospital overlooking the delivery room and cheering on my entry into the world. The man sitting by the microphone announced, “…and hailing from Malawi!, weighing just over 2.2 pounds, handsome as can be, destined for greatness and a lot more… welcome Chimwemweeeeeee Nkhomaaaaaaaaa!!!”, this great spectating crowd was jumping all over the place, shouting, screaming and dancing with joy. It was and still is my moment to re-shape so I don’t see how what you think applies here but it’s possible that I had imagined all that and only means my imagination was so great from the start. Perhaps the moment was a quiet one, such a flat line with a few OHs and UHs from the doctors and bystanders. Whatever the case, I think I handled that part really well. It’s the next part when life begins to test you that has grown me up and I would never have done it without the support of my family.

 Life is too precious and I can only and will only ever imagine the pain of producing life. Yet we come into this world and live life so carelessly, never thinking twice about the concerns of those who have raised us and care so deeply for our well-being  I am grown up now and though there’s still so much room to grow, I am content with the progress I've made. Looking further back, all I want to say is how sorry I am for the times I disappeared without a word and caused so much worry and heart attacks for those who care for me. A troubled youth I was, lost in these streets loose. It was a life blown by the wind, yet just a young brother chasing for meaning of life. I should be dead by now because, man, I have taken many wrong turns in life. I am not proud of whom I was and like many of you; I too have hidden behind the overused lame excuse of ‘it was just a phase’. Wrong decisions have consequences and the price to pay is hard labor, what a waste of time and energy. So it’s a miracle that I've been sustained to uphold a higher calling than life itself. It’s taken me twenty four years to put it all into perspective and every time I think about it, I am humbled by the size of this magnificence; the lights have finally turned on.

Live life to the full but also ensure you preserve it for those who care for you. If you claim you grown up, then your life should really spell out RESPONSIBLE, WISDOM, GRATEFUL and FOCUS among many others. If you are ‘grateful’ then you recognize the efforts and sacrifices of your parents or guardians and so live life in a manner that amplifies these efforts to produce things worth applauding. If your actions are not being applauded yet, isolate and check yourself because greatness starts in isolation away from the noise, a time that allows us to focus and shape our dreams to a precise cut. I am afraid our generation is wasting away and sometimes only because we don’t listen when advised.

So as we receive this bundle of joy, our princess, our daughter, all I can think about are all the things I want to teach her about life and provide for her just as my parents have done for me. I guess that goes without saying, the love and care a parent has for his/her child. When my daughter is old enough, I hope she’ll remember all the wisdom I can impart into her life to make smart decisions as I have come to eventually do. I realize life is not clear cut and expecting perfection is unnecessary pressure, I just hope we can avoid silly mistakes and then whatever life brings, I hope we shall never forget to love one another. Without digressing much on expectations with this newly born, when she shall finally ask what the moment of her birth was like, I shall say, ‘we danced so hard, we made the headlines’. One last thing, if mum was reading this, I know she'd be proud.