L.J's red jumper chronicles.

  ‘See those fallen shadows there Are the shadows false of life?’ ~except from poem by anonymous    When l wake up in the morning l love to hear the song of the birds, crickets and our loud chickens in the storehouse echoing to let them out before the crickets disappear from the grass. But within all that noise, a voice also echoes - a person singing, it is Meja. He has a different tune each morning and today he was singing alongside his radio a luo song.  Mornings weren’t complete until you hear a collection of these sounds…the birds in the sky, crickets, chicken then Meja. Oh and incase you overslept in the house of Wuod, my father, then you would hear also mum’s voice pulling you out from your sweet slumber. Their house their rules, in the house of Wuod everyone including our cat was to be awake by  8am . l personally hated mornings, and so any opportunities to be sent out to get something from the shop l would always jump at it, if not l would ...

Take my hand and lead thy spirit to Thine For my body thus flesh remains Give me a moment’s glance I will ask To make thy peace with no regret With no withering to salt to become.   Hold my hand to journeys’ end Where my fate lies with Thine To suffereth or to rejoice? I hope my name is in the book.   Was it worth all I did? My deeds on Earth are read to me Was my heart right Thine will ask Unto to Thine I kneel and bow With my spirit I wait in judgement.   With my judgment set on stone I walk thy fate that waitheth for me As my spirit fades away, I hope the ones I left behind Live their lives right for this day.      

  ‘Please help him…help him out!’ To date these words still ring in my ear.   ‘That food is not going to cook itself!’ My mum shouted out to any one of her child who was within earshot. The trick was always to hope you were the only one of your siblings who heard it so that you can tell the others the task was assigned to them under the false pretence that it came directly from mum. My elder sister, Lauren, was the queen bee of doing that!   But for today it was a case of all hands-on deck situation in the kitchen. Visiting that day were our godmother, mom’s friend, our maternal Aunties and Lauren’s friend. It was going to be ladies' night and we always aimed to impress with our prowess in cooking. With my sisters Lauren and Paula we each automatically took the role of our speciality in the kitchen. Lauren was the meat queen, Paula was the pastry queen and I was the worldwide exquisite cuisine, of which for that day I was making Indian naans and baked potato...

‘We found each other I helped you out of a broken place You gave me comfort But falling for you was my mistake’             - Call out My Name by the Weeknd   This is the end. Maybe is the fact that Siba asked his friend if they could exchange girlfriends or that Kasanda forgot she was dating Siba when she let another guy flirt with her. It was the word unsaid that needed to be said, who was going to say it first?   Kasanda The news of her Uncle’s death devastated her, her mother’s brother. The news came just a few days after they had gone to see him at the hospital and he had looked so much better. Maybe that is the thing about death, it likes to creep in when least expected. A secrecy it dwells upon, only sometimes known to the one with whom it owes. Kasanda was placed in charge of designing and printing the funeral programs, and the graveyard flowers acquisition. It helped distract her from feeling t...

Breaking up is the easy part Just ending it and wishing the other person the best… Sounds easy right? Or say you are better off without me… Easy right? Yes, l do say yes!   So what is the hardest part? The gear-shift drift This is just after the break-up For a few weeks or months you loath the breakup and delete all signs of the person in your life Next, you miss the person and search for a few photos of the person with you in a group photo I only leave group photos  Even for a split second, you think of checking in on them on social media   The stop-over drift  You look back into the relationship… The good…the bad…the toxic And justify breaking up, and now you no longer miss the person  You love and enjoy meeting other people  And maybe even reach out to the one that got away   The 360-degree drift This is the curveball Your ex reaches out saying they miss you You now have a decision to make, to turn b...

‘ What is love? Oh baby, don't hurt me Don't hurt me No more.’ Oh how we all wish love was simple, faultless and pure but this is never always the case. Haddaway said it better in the song ‘what is love.’   Siba met Kasanda over for coffee at their favourite spot in Nairobi. Kasanda had just texted him ‘something is missing’ and he asked her to meet him up for coffee.    Choosing a table for two by the far corner, they sat down.   Siba: Hi Kasanda, you look good! Kasanda: Am just wearing jeans and a sweater top.  Siba: You still look good. I know you don’t like compliments!{smirking} Kasanda:{smiling shyly} You look official, are you from court? Siba: Yea...l had case at milimani law courts. One of my firm’s client was arrested for being drunk and disorderly with violence  as he had attacked one of the police officers saying, ‘do you know who l am, you stupid Empty officer!’ The judge was ruthless and fined the guy way more for his release. Kasand...

  I took a deep dive today Into your mind I came to understand or to be honest tried to ´This is the only choice l have, I don’t like it right now They would be better off without me.’ Do you know how selfish these words are ´...better off’ you say, think about it  If a situation is hard as it, why leave us  To face it alone with an additional baggage of your death ´It will be simple, the other side is better than this’ Ever heard of jumping from a frying pan to fire Leaving a situation of the known to the unknown  I don’t know if you believe in Big G or not but l do Am sure Big G won’t be happy to see you before time Or are your sure where you are going would be better? Can it help to stick to the situation that you know of ? ´It is too hard, there are no other options  What l can l do that would help me recover? I have done everything  I can’t handle it anymore  Am done!’ Tic Tac Toe Iife is a game sometimes...winning is the goal  But at the sam...