Where did my summer go?
I'm not asking this because I returned to see that the rains had not only quenched the fun in the sun, but they also soaked my people's hearts with sorrows and left showers of tears upon our flooded grounds. Not once, not twice, had this insane bolt of pain struck deep in our Ghanain society where the governments reign only seemed to feign a sudden interest to the floods and pains of the many made homeless. How many wails of pain must a people cry before something is done about the floods which wash away homes and lives? Shame.
I'm not asking this because I returned to have my happiness stolen from me like the so called "security" abducted my brother and sold him to the highest bidder. I could only recall as I bid him farewell saying I would return, now I sit constantly hoping that he'd be returned to me, praying that this pain be abducted from me, barking up at the tree of my sorrows just like he'd bark and wag his tail whenever he'd see my face in the morning. Mourning.
I'm not asking this because I returned to turn a new leaf only to see that my tree of friendship had just hit the fall, autumn breezes blew my friends away in all their branches leaving me feeling cold and withered without them, still desperately holding on to my roots while each time I look on social media I see people blooming in the glowing sun I see no more. No fruits of happiness to hide seeds of joy, no shade from it all because my friends fell from me like autumn leaves for whatever reason there may have been, just bare branches and roots in a raging storm. Gloom.
What do you do with it all? The pain, death, hurt, harmful social norms, corrupt justice systems, all of it...what do you do with all this? It feels like the summer burns with violence and pain; 49 dead in an LGBT club in Orlando, a child dragged to death by a crocodile in Disney World, British and Russian violence escalating simply due to the soccer games, the horrifically unjust sentencing of a guilty rapist, wars around the corner, unsettling elections, etc. The list just feels like the craze and pain could grow forever and ever again.
The pain looms over us, surrounds us in the shade of its proposed reality, eclipsing our visions and expectations of our sunny vacation, glazing over our heavy hearts...or does it? It took mutiny to even believe this but what if the pains are necessary? Our summer pain is not and ending to the chapter of our happiness but a plot twist only seen by those brave enough to read between the lines. A carefully woven sequence of events that lead us to a mind blowing climax. Hear me out.
Allow me to shed a familiar light in the night of our hard times, and illuminate the alien joys hidden deep in the bowels of our trials. Perhaps the blessings of our summer don't lie in lax but contrarily adorn themselves with pain, suffering, even fear to strengthen us that we may never face such hardships again. In straight, our joys are that we won't face the same again. We have overcome. Look at you, you breathe, you live, you stand scarred but regardless you stand. Through pain have we learnt, and through pain will we ensure that no there will face the same. So stand well rooted in your foundations and fear not for after the storms and rains of the winters and the dead of autumn, our spring shall surely come again and the fruits of our labor shall feed the future generations, our flowers shall bloom out of the pains we've faced. So what do you do with all the pain? Learn from it, use it to help others...
...let the trees of our scars give shade to the future generations.
