Love and life Shapers

My Nana and my Nhandi have a birthday today. They can't celebrate in person with me.... but I can certainly celebrate on their behalf - so I will. I am celebrating their life, what they meant to me, what they did for me.

I wrote a little bit, a while ago, in a book about how we are shaped and fashioned by what we love - it's a quote by Goethe and most definitely one of my favourite quotes. And maybe now it's time it made it onto my blog. I wrote it while watching TheBear play tennis.

01/11/2014

"We are shaped and fashioned by what we love" - Goethe

One of my favourite quotes. I've always took it to mean that the people and thing I love make up who I am. But what do I love? The obvious: my family, friends, they all apply. But does the smell of hot espresso coffee, freshly baked rolls, the sea all combined, shape who I am. Yes, I think it does. It must do.

Because that is the smell of Sea Point for me, which is being with my Nana. It's the smell of part of my childhood, it's a smell of happiness. And your childhood must shape who you are today. Regardless of if you use it to excuse it for the adult  you are, or if  you choose to just think 'Man, that's how life was' and thus learn and grow. I do believe you should use every experience to your advantage. So if you had a crap start, then make damn sure your middle and ending is awesome. Don't blame the kid you were, or had to be, for the adult you are. But back to my smell...

When I occasionally find that combo of smell, I inhale it with all of my being, all of the lung capacity I can. My heart swells a bit and I am happy. I am happy I had that time that shaped me. An awesome and amazing childhood full of love and laughter.

I am not an ogre, nor a witch. I'm a mostly happy soul who has been ever so fortunate to have had lots of love to shape me.

Did those four women in my family try to mould me, shape me? Hell yes! But because all of them tried in different ways, I like to think that I'm the best of all four of them. Grannie's homeliness, Nana's lady likeness, Mommy's strongness and Catty's drive. From all of them: emotion and heart. From all of them I got a unique sense of humour and from my dad, strength with words, compassion and wit. I'm the best of 5 people that were the centre of my universe for the first 16 years of my life. It HAS to have shaped me.

From Nhandi, I got so much.... I got my soul sister.

To add on from that... as the years go by.... I realise that the book '5 people you meet in Heaven' is just so spot on. You meet people who you realise change a little bit of who you are for the better. Or influence your life in a way that it changes. It's a good thing and I come to the end of this year and I know that I am quite happy with the person who I am. Yes, I'm a little over the place, I struggle to keep in contact with people, and so on. But never mind circumstances, who I am is quite alright. My Nana would be proud of me, that's pretty much all I ever wanted from her. Weirdly, the older I get, the more I realise how much I am like her. How we all were like each other.