Tumblr Thing

I'm mostly doing the Tumblr thing these days. I'm into images.  I write in my journal but not really anywhere else. I'm getting back to it soon. 

Summer Lovin'

I call her Amma because I got her on a Saturday :) She's going everywhere with me, this summer. 

Being Nice To Others

One of my favorite things about being a woman has to be the bonds I share with the women I call my friends, sisters, mentors and sometimes even strangers, that I meet by chance. I am grateful to be surrounded by women who support and encourage me, let me be myself and give me strong doses of tough love, when necessary. These are people who genuinely invest time and energy (sometimes money) into me and they do so with an open heart. Women are generally nurturers and I feel that strongly about the ones in my life. All of this may seem small but there was a point in time where I was not so sure about genuine friendships amongst women and was being bombarded with the notion that they may actually be impossible.

When I was in primary school, the requirements for friendship were so basic that everyone was my friend. It started like this, if you were a girl in the same class, we were friends. Just based on that alone, it was us against the boys. A little later it became, if you gave me some sweets or you shared your toys with me, the friendship was sealed. Somewhere towards the beginning of high school, things changed. Cliques were forming – some had older siblings who taught them the “how to be cool” thing, some were growing boobs and gorgeous hair, others had the CDs or clothes we all wanted and others had all the boys in the class falling at their feet. We were growing up and growing into our personalities and ourselves, which changed the friendship dynamics.

That is around the time society started trying to sell us the idea that girls just do not like each other. As I grew older, this message was reiterated in different forms: women are jealous of each other, we don’t support each other, we are catty and mean, we are full of drama and we are constantly in competition for one thing (men) or another. The movie, “Mean Girls” did not do anything to dispel these notions but that is another story. It became very easy to get caught up in those supposed truths. Going to an all girls high school only made it seem worse, girls fighting over boys, girls telling each other’s secrets, girls bullying each other etc. Things could get very tense (almost hostile) -- you know, those glares you get/give, the standoffish conversations and the whispers behind someone’s back. I started to wonder if it was true, maybe women just couldn’t get along. I started to wonder if those girls who were proud to say they didn’t have many female friends, were onto something.

I am glad to say I now know for that those types of girls were not onto anything. Having close bonds with other women can be enriching and fulfilling. There is no substitute for some good girl friends. A friend recently told me that she views her relationships, with the women around her, as one big candle lighting ceremony. Using a candle to light another candle does not extinguish the first candle. If candlelight represents good things that you have to offer – kindness, honesty, support, a compliment - share it with other women and light up the world.

Zimmerman Resort 2015

I am in love. The eyelet detail, the hats......every single thing. This is perfect execution.

 

Domboshava

Sweet Poetry

A friend sent me this recently and I quite liked it. It's called The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, 'Yes.'

Instagram Chronicles

1. At the market in Masvingo, doing some shopping. 

2. Kezi, visiting my gogo

3. Me, enjoying some winter sunshine

4. Reading Sophia Amoruso's story of how she became a fashion retail giant. 

5. Hippo Creek, Masvingo. Walking to Lake Kyle. 

I've been traveling a lot -- which has been awesome because I'm happy to see so many different places in Zimbabwe. There are still tons more on my list, but I guess they can wait. When I finally came back to Harare, I took some time to reflect and thank God for his journey mercies as I have been up and down Zim roads. Our roads are incredibly dangerous and bad. There is no guarantee that you will get where you going or return home. We encountered so many accidents on the roads, old car wreckages along the sides of the highway. It is quite sad, really. I hope road safety will be taken seriously, soon.

Instagram: @glamgirlZ