EVEN IN FAILURE
I observed an incident recently and it really got my brain faculty working and my mind wheels turning. This incident, naturally, would have seen the “old me ” passing by but not this new me. Most Ghanaians including my old self have the mindset of minding their own business and leaving others to theirs but its about time we realise that our business and other’s business has a really thin line separating the two.
Children are wonderful beings who live in their own world. Try as you might to understand them,most of their actions are left ununderstood. We get to thinking, why did that little girl remove her shoes to run barefooted? Why did she not walk instead of running? Why is she still doing the same thing her mum asked her not to do? These and many other things boggle our minds in our bid to understand these little ones. Some people say the least understood about them, the better. I was actually in this category until I witnessed this incident.
Six children comprising four girls and two boys came to buy lollipops in a grocery shop where I was also buying. They were served before me because I met them when I arrived there. After spending about five minutes at the grocery shop,I was returning home when I saw those six children squatting ahead of me. Curiosity took the better part of me and so I decided to look at what they were all doing squatting like that. Moving closer, I realised that the rains of the previous day had created little gullies by the road and these children were trying to get the rubber handles of their lollipops to move like boats on the residual rain water in the puddle amidst shouts of success and triumph by those who were able to do that successfully. I smiled and was about walking away when something caught my eye.
One of the children, a girl who will be about age seven , was not shouting nor was she happy. She was still squatting but what got my attention was the fact that she was way behind the group in proximity and didn’t look happy. I sighed and went back to where she was, realizing at the same time that I even passed by her without noticing her in the first place. I guess I was minding my business at that time. When I got closer to her I saw her struggling to get her rubber handle to sail successfully but to no avail because her gully didn’t have enough water and was very shallow. Immediately she noticed my presence, she looked at me with eyes that said ‘WHY WONT THIS LADY MIND HER OWN BUSINESS, WHAT DOES SHE WANT WITH ME ‘. I smiled but still stood there wondering what she was going to do next.
She stood straight with her eyes off her friends and focussed her attention on the rubber handle. She looked at it for a while and left the scene. I shook my head. I was hoping she could at least wait for a while to see if anything different will happen and cause her rubber handle to move. I was about to continue my journey home when I saw her coming back. Apparently, myself and the little girl had two different ideas altogether. While I was thinking of WAITING to see a different outcome, she was thinking ACTING to see a different outcome. She came back with a stick and started removing the sand in the gully which saw the rubber handle moving because the little water had concentrated in one place and had started moving along with the rubber handle because the sand was being drawn backwards . I looked at the little girl, then looked at the moving rubber handle and back to the girl only to see a radiant smile that brightened her eyes and made her look so lovely.Exactly what the happiness of success can do. Just then she screamed and also started jumping and calling on her friends to come and see how far her’s was moving. They all left theirs and gathered around her.
Still smiling, I continued my journey home. I then realised that really, there’s a very thin line between someone’s business and my own business because in the end, we all have related problems to solve, and what is better than learning from someone’s experience. I learnt something from the little girl that even most adults seem to miss always. Even in your failure, when the whole world seem to be winning except for you, you are still solely responsible for your continuous failure or a change in the weather success. Everyone is susceptible to failure, but the difference is to rise up when you hit the ground. Like the little girl, if one method fails try another and don’t sit down waiting for help to fall from space and remember…NO ONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU EXCEPT YOURSELF.
PRINCESS C. HAYFORD
MINDSET NETWORKS .
