Malinke proverb
I particularly liked the saying that appeared on September 3rd, on my little quote calendar. This has been attributed to a West African Malinke proverb and reads: If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don’t wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes.
My interpretation of this is the inevitable will always happen, regardless of how we approach it. One therefore has a choice. Does one waste emotions such as anticipation and worry on something that will happen anyway, or does one go with the flow and trust in the outcome?
This quote reminds me of some healing work I did several years ago. I had become aware of a group of beings, whom I referred to as the Council. These were men, always dressed in white robes, who appeared to be the caretakers of my life. I got the sense I had planned the events that would take place in my life, and they were there making sure that I achieved these things. I saw these men several times over the years and talked about them in Who is Me? P 171. One image I saw, was of them poring over a large map, spread out on the table before them. I gathered this was my life path. On another, I saw their relief as I was born. The pregnancy, was for them, a period of uncertainty. I had come to the conclusion that I no longer wanted to be there, and they were worried that I might somehow sabotage my mission. Once born, I saw them breathing a collective sigh of relief, like getting me there had been the most difficult part of the journey for them. But the main reason I am bringing these men back up in this blog is their direct role in my life. On more than one occasion, I experienced crisis times, where there seemed no way forward. In times such as these I would always pray, and miraculously, the next day, things would seem so much better. On one particular occasion, these men appeared during my praying. They showed me that my life was like a wheel. Yes, they could put the brakes on hold, and they would do so this time, but I would still have to experience that situation at a later date. In other words, I did have a choice as to the timing of a particular event, but I didn’t have a choice as to experiencing that event. Whether I faced it tomorrow or next year, I would have to face it.
I can’t even remember what that particular crisis was, but it was huge for me at the time. I was still married so it would have been something I would have been going through connected to that. All I know is I must have faced it at some stage. That wheel does keep turning – tomorrow still comes.
I had to look up where in Africa, the Malinke people lived and this is what Google provided: Malinke, also called Maninka, Mandinka, or Manding, a West African people occupying parts of Guinea, Ivory Coast, Maki, Senegal, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.
Perhaps it is because I have just been watching Itchy Boots, a young Dutch girl who has travelled through these countries on her motorbike, that this proverb caught my attention, or maybe it is because I had an African life myself and this was a proverb we used. Whatever the reason, something about it resonated with me.