The Mountain

Drawing by Miss P Xongo

The other day I woke up earlier than usual, it was still dark outside. I stood outside waiting for a colleague, it was very cold and my body was shivering, I stood there for what seemed like forever…

Time passed and the morning was drawing in. The sun took forever to rise, maybe I was the impatient one. The sun was on some strip tease shit that morning, all I could see were the sun rays held at ransom by the hills of Bloemfontein…

I got tired of just standing there and doing nothing, I decided to do something about my situation. I started running, I ran towards the mountain…

The journey was long and tough. The more I ran, the more tired I was. The terrain got steeper and steer, I could feel every body part whining “yhooo hayi, this is unfair, I deserve a more gentle terrain”. I wanted to stop and turn back, but my mind reminded me why I was doing this, for the sun light at the top of the mountain. I recovered my focus and carried on…

As if the steep terrain was not enough, every second house I passed a dog would come out, bark and chase me. Now at this point I really wanted to turn back, or look for stones to throw at the dogs. During these occurrences my body surprised me, every time a dog would come running towards me, if I didn’t pay attention to it by screaming “voetsek voetsek voetsek”, somehow my legs carried me faster or the dog lost interest and turned away. I was really amazed by the power of focus.

The bloody hill got steeper, I was thirstier and my legs were starting to cramp. Then this is the point I was like:

“Hayi vokov, I am going back now this is no longer worth it”

Something inside me said:

“WTF!!! Are you out of your marbles??? There is no going back now… You only have two options now, it’s either you are going up this mountain or you are going to die trying bhuti”

This inner conversation disturbed and motivated me at the same time. I was distracted by it, so I no longer felt the effort I was putting into the running. I was going over the conversation over and over again, then before I knew it I was at the summit of the mountain.

I stood there taking deep breathes with my eyes closed. The Free State sun kissed my pretty face, I felt the insolation penetrate my brown skin, and it went down my spine to warm up other regions of my body. That sun light illuminated my dark soul.

I turned around, looked back and gazed at the place I was at, the sun had not shone there yet. I took a closer look and noticed some people that were standing there looking up to the mountain wishing and waiting for the sun light. I could hear their hopes scream as they looked up to the mountain waiting for nature to serve them with some sunlight, I was glad I did something about my situation.

As I was standing there I had one little wish though, I wished I was down there so I could see the perfect silhouette in those people’s eyes the sun had made out of me.

Hey, there is nothing to this, I am just telling you about one of my mornings. BUT I do hope you extract something special from it, LOL, I live an interesting life neh

- Mzukhology