Stay Calm.

I’m meeting more folks my age eager to relocate upcountry. I think as we grow older we seek peace, simplicity and solitude both in our inner and outer world. Nanyuki is my favorite small town and fits that bill perfectly. I’m even writing this story from the boot of my car as I fence my little shamba. Beats any corner office especially as the mountain is in plain sight. Every time I turn off at the Marwa junction from the Nyeri Nairobi highway my heart rate instantly slows down. At least that’s how I feel. Having said that I’m still slightly addicted to the chaos of Nairobi. The traffic lights and hectic pace of life still give me that jab of adrenaline I need. But I often want to get away from it and then return. Maybe the best of both worlds completes me for now. After all at 40, we are allowed to bake our cake, have it and eat it yes?

My forties have been anything but calm. I call them my furious 40s. Looking forward to my fortune 50s The fight for my soul and destiny has been a personal world war. But just like any other war, a time of rebuilding comes when the guns have gone silent. And peace is often a result of that. That has been the case over the last year or so for me. As I look back at my 40s the turbulence has been a lot but somehow hidden in that kelele have been the sacred instructions on where to go and what to do as I searched for my purpose.

It’s like being on a flight and going through those air pockets that shake the plane. The fasten seatbelt light comes on then the captain’s voice echoes through the cabin in that tweng (accent) of theirs, assuring us that all is well and we should keep calm. By the way, I hardly hear some captains speaking. Maybe they’re tired of repeating the same line over and over

For us to scale greater heights in life staying calm is necessary. Even the Good Book encourages us to be calm and know that He is God. My baby shark once had a mug that read ‘Keep calm and drink tea’. I need to replace that mug because it reminded me every morning at breakfast to relax and drink tea which I love hehe.

There’s an old small book in our home library by Gordon Mac Donald titled – Ordering your private world. He has a memo to the disorganized in every chapter. Chapter 2 memo says, ‘If my private world is in order it will be because I make a daily choice to monitor its state of orderliness’. Folks, keeping calm doesn’t grow effortlessly like a weed. We have to cultivate that inner peace and tend to it by reducing the external volume brought by societal expectations and norms.

Folks, do you find yourselves more focused and productive when your inner world is calm? When something is harassing our minds and hearts then we go through life like a misfiring car engine. Reminds me of my old 504 pickup that kept jerking back in the day especially when it rained.

I admire mummy shark on this calmness issue. She has an above-average awareness of time on how to plan and use it. No wonder she achieves a lot. She has cultivated that calmness over time by monitoring the orderliness of her life. A few positive and consistent habits help us maintain inner calm and that often shows in the quality of work we do and how we live in general. For me sharing a story here every Friday is one such attempt.

Another habit I’m trying to cultivate to help me be more calm is to stop voicing my worries, especially to people who will do nothing about it. Misery loves company and I need to drop that company ASAP. Folks we have to be the captains of our souls for that is where life comes from. Proverbs 4: 23 confirms this by saying “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows springs of life”.

Life as we know it demands that we attend to everyone and everything at the expense of our inner satisfaction. That’s why many good people are very busy people but very tired at the same time. That’s no way to live. We live in a world where being driven is a way of life. Often inner calm is the casualty of a driven life. So I’d ask, what are you driven by and towards? If your response is something you don’t like then you are accelerating to the ground.

A good start to reclaiming a meaningful life is to cultivate calmness. Being in this small town works for me. Planning my time better is a work in progress. What works best for you? “. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind the closer he is to strength” Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius said. Life as in golf shows us it’s how we finish that matters. Folks may you all finish strong by reclaiming and cultivating calmness. That’s where success thrives best.

Now keep calm and read this article again hehe…