THAT’S LIFE: Power of spoken word and positivity

There was this time when my son who was four years old  and was given a kienyeji chicken as a gift after a visit upcountry. PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The little boy wanted to know where Kuku was. In quick thinking, we told him “Kuku had gone for a long, long walk.”
  • “Why”? He asked. “To visit and bond with other kukus,” we responded.
  • The day after, we offered that perhaps Kuku had gotten lost? Eventually, he came to accept that Kuku was not coming back.

There was this time when my son who was four years old  and was given a kienyeji chicken as a gift after a visit upcountry. Being the city bred child he is, he believed the animal had been given to him as a pet.

He would talk to it and feed it on maize and rice when he came home from kindergarten. Unknown to him, his village born parents had other culinary uses for his “pet.”

Unfortunately, no-one thought to inform him that the chicken he so loved, begun life as a walking bird and not the packaged piece of meat in the supermarket.

Eventually the day arrived for Kuku to fulfil its destiny.  The chicken was slaughtered, prepared for dinner and was every bit as delicious. However, the next day we realised we had a problem.

The little boy wanted to know where Kuku was. In quick thinking, we told him “Kuku had gone for a long, long walk.” “Why”? He asked. “To visit and bond with other kukus,” we responded. The day after, we offered that perhaps Kuku had gotten lost? Eventually, he came to accept that Kuku was not coming back.

Life returned to normal and I was so relieved that we had gotten away with our chicken-gate saga. What I didn’t know is that there is a day of reckoning and all chickens, especially the ones you have eaten, come home to roost.

KUKU NIGHTMARE

One of his sisters decided to spill the beans. That night I rushed to his room after hearing a loud scream. I found him in bed, eyes wide open in fear as he trembled beneath the sheets. He was having a nightmare. Consoling him, I asked what he had dreamt about. “Kuku wanted to eat my legs because we had eaten it for dinner!” he said.

It was time to come clean and talk about all things Kuku including their delicious purpose and the fact that they there are no Kuku ghosts. He accepted my explanation and promptly fell asleep. I went back to bed bemused and astounded at a child’s imagination. Kuku ghost was certainly a first for me.

The thing about that incident though was how word spoken to him created a thought and that thought played out in the form of a very real nightmare. Words and thoughts are powerful.

It is written that God created the world through His words, through speaking. In our lives, so much is created by our words and thoughts. It is safe to say that the life we are living today was created by a thought and a word last week or last year.

You said something to yourself or someone said something to you, those words and thoughts were internalised and here you are. “I’ll never get out of debt,” “I’ll never find someone to love” or “I’ll never lose weight” created actions that have placed you solidly on the path you are on.

If you are on a positive trajectory, you can be sure a positive thought, word and eventually action put you there. If our words and thoughts are so powerful, then we shouldn’t take them more seriously.

GUARD OVER EMOTIONS, MINDS, WORDS

If we knew the power of a negative thought, we would arrest it before it was spoken. We would place guards over our minds, emotions and words. We would understand that stick and stones may break bones but words have the power to decimate a life.

Fortunately, on a positive note, if we don’t like the direction our life is heading, we can change and do something about it. If we notice our thought life isn’t bringing about our desired future, we can train ourselves to think higher by feeding our mind with education, inspiration and positive thinking.

We can train ourselves to make positive declarations to ourselves, even by speaking just one mantra every morning. These thoughts and actions will eventually create such a powerful belief system that will impact our actions. We will become what we consistently think and speak about all day.