(Source: theantiheroes)
Typewriter Series #411 by Tyler Knott Gregson
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to every single one of you amazing mothers. And to the one’s in my life, thank you, so very much, for showing me the nature of love. I learn more of it by watching you than I could ever express in my silly words.
Text for Tired Eyes:
This is an ode to all of those that have never asked for one.
A thank you in words to all of those that do not do
what they do so well for the thanking.
This is to the mothers.
This is to the ones who match our first scream
with their loudest scream; who harmonize in our shared pain
and joy and terrified wonder when life begins.
This is to the mothers.
To the ones who stay up late and wake up early and always know
the distance between their soft humming song and our tired ears.
To the lips that find their way to our foreheads and know,
somehow always know, if too much heat is living in our skin.
To the hands that spread the jam on the bread and the mesmerizing
patient removal of the crust we just cannot stomach.
This is to the mothers.
To the ones who shout the loudest and fight the hardest and sacrifice
the most to keep the smiles glued to our faces and the magic
spinning through our days. To the pride they have for us
that cannot fit inside after all they have endured.
To the leaking of it out their eyes and onto the backs of their
hands, to the trails of makeup left behind as they smile
through those tears and somehow always manage a laugh.
This is to the patience and perseverance and unyielding promise
that at any moment they would give up their lives to protect ours.
This is to the mothers.
To the single mom’s working four jobs to put the cheese in the mac
and the apple back into the juice so their children, like birds in
a nest, can find food in their mouths and pillows under their heads.
To the dreams put on hold and the complete and total rearrangement
of all priority. This is to the stay-at-home moms and those that
find the energy to go to work every day; to the widows and the
happily married.
To the young mothers and those that deal with the unexpected
announcement of a new arrival far later than they ever anticipated.
This is to the mothers.
This is to the sack lunches and sleepover parties, to the soccer games
and oranges slices at halftime. This is to the hot chocolate
after snowy walks and the arguing with the umpire
at the little league game. To the frosting ofbirthday cakes
and the candles that are always lit on time; to the Easter egg hunts,
the slip-n-slides and the iced tea on summer days.
This is to the ones that show us the way to finding our own way.
To the cutting of the cord, quite literally the first time
and even more painfully and metaphorically the second time around.
To the mothers who become grandmothers and great-grandmothers
and if time is gentle enough, live to see the children of their children
have children of their own. To the love.
My goodness to the love that never stops and comes from somewhere
only mothers have seen and know the secret location of.
To the love that grows stronger as their hands grow weaker
and the spread of jam becomes slower and the Easter eggs get easier
to find and sack lunches no longer need making.
This is to the way the tears look falling from the smile lines
around their eyes and the mascara that just might always be
smeared with the remains of their pride for all they have created.
This is to the mothers.
(Source: rootsrecreated)
You should tell them the truth. Tell them that if they hold on too tightly, love might cut them. Tell them to hold on tightly anyway. Tell them everything is worth it and that the richness of life is only ever enhanced by it’s inevitable, brief flashes of sadness and loss.
AFRICA’s leaders must ensure that “no African is considered a foreigner in another African country”, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama said in Johannesburg on Monday.
Mr Mahama was speaking ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa 2013, which takes place in Cape Town from Wednesday to Friday. The forum will provide a platform for discussion among business and government leaders on Africa’s growth.
Easing travel between and passage through African states would benefit individuals and the continent as a whole, Mr Mahama said.
“We must work towards achieving a system of governance in which no African, for the purpose of short-term passage, is considered a foreigner in another African country,” he said.
“We must enact laws that allow people, goods and services to move freely across the continent so as to establish and integrate free trade areas,” Mr Mahama added.
The president also said it was time for the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) to “make its own transition from a deliberative body to a legislative one”.
The parliament is at present languishing on the political and geographical margins in Midrand, South Africa.
“Now is the time for the PAP to solidify the energy of solidarity and hope that is sweeping across the continent,” he said. “The African Union must hasten its evolution into a union of people, not merely a union of governments.
“The PAP can contribute to process by organising the election of members through universal adult suffrage in our member countries.”
Even a revamped PAP’s powers would, however, be restricted to passing “model laws” that it deems to be desirable by all the AU’s 54 member states.
Others expected to attend the WEF on Africa include Sudanese entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim; Abraaj Group founder Arif Naqvi; and Frannie Léautier, the executive secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation in Zimbabwe.
YES, YES, AND YESSSS! Cannot express just how many times I have had discussions with other fellow African passport holders, who travel frequently around the continent, about the serious disconnect that occurs between us travelling from one country to another. It’s as though intra-African tourism by African citizens is an unwelcome undertaking as the legal systematic processes currently in place are incredibly discouraging (expensive, time consuming, lengthy processes).
Although initiatives like ECOWAS does make things somewhat easier, the discriminatory and at times xenophobic treatment African citizens face whilst attempting to travel to other African countries continually shocks, baffles and leaves me discouraged and disheartened - especially when citizens of certain European and North American countries can travel through the continent with much greater ease.
Not sure how Rwanda’s new law that enables citizens of all African countries to obtain a visa (I believe for travelling purposes only) upon arrival is going, but the Rwandan government is certainly on the right thought path.
(Source: wisequotesshia)
Social life in Windhoek, Namibia (then South West Africa), 1961
(Source: iluvsouthernafrica)
Hahaha. Brilliant marketing.
(Source: antisexual)
Yes please.
