Sikiliza

Always learning… Dear Traveller, I see you.  I see the new enthusiasm in your stride as you walk past the familiar and unfamiliar.  Textures and patterns of everyday life reveal themselves in ways previously unseen, so much richer and more vivid. Our sensations are louder, and our self-awareness is expanding. We know that this is important as the 'why' reveals itself ever so slightly as we forge ahead in faith. South Eastern Zanzibar sights ©️ 2022 @msikiliza You see fellow traveller, there is a place for each of us to contribute along this life path.  In this space, we are all worthy and enough just as we are.  It is here where we learn how our life experiences and the baggage (gifts or otherwise) inherited from our ancestors could undergo a transformation should we so choose. The kind of transformation that help us be offerings of our unique selves weaving ourselves as resources to the fabric of our communities. It is here we build our skills and confidence for e...

  Me savouring Saturday 🤩 joy… I land and grind to a halt at the weekends exhausted and exhilarated all at once…. Time has evolved into a blur nowadays…seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months years an obscure vague expression of life in full caps  and endless drama.   Everything seems like its on loud … maybe its just me but the promise of a grinding to a deliberate  SLOW & SILENT Saturday has been a lifeline…  I therefore pour myself into the end of week break like the refreshing promise of a cold hiss, pop and fizz of a favourite drink filling a glass … And so today I am inspired to pay adoration and adulation to my most    precious of days…Saturdays…. Sacred Saturdays …(re)fresh    morning air gives pause, lulling, cleansing most transgressions and dis-ease even for an instant… Sanguine Saturdays …(re)newal of the weary of our bodies & refill   our  spirits with hope, faith and love - these things make the worl...

I turned 44 today and I am so excited I cannot contain my joy! 💙 I never really outgrew my love for birthdays. It is a great time to celebrate life and reflect on the things that really matter to me. So I celebrate being here and honour those who choose to have me in life adventures.  This year is significant because of many unexpected things I had to contend with.  I drew some insights which are helping me along the way… Oldoinyo Lesatima  2022 1. Dare to taste life : Courageously seeking the art of embracing life. Taking in everyday joys and pains and the constant negotiating and navigating the now has been the best remedy to balm any wounds of regrets that may fester in my future.. 2 . I love people and believe in humanity : I am endlessly intrigued and heart-warmed by encounters with others' ideas, thoughts and connections. I remain hopeful and optimistic that we are not defined by narrow notions of ourselves and each have the potential for  greatness......

Somewhere along her life-path  She dug her heels with inner purpose  To not be enslaved by fear  As this was not living at all.  She rejected leaving a legacy  Of being trapped by fear and dread… Of maybes, regrets, and failure Skulking, always afraid Of the unknown and unfamiliar. So she instead chose  life and its big surprises it is beautiful and terrifying    even the things    that felt unsavoury. She whispered often to the wind  sharing her secrets… The things she encountered,  dreamt, felt and did  - the joys, pains  and everything in between. But why the wind, you ask…? You see this wind  Is the same air  From which we all draw life Breathing in and out  Giving and taking our life's essence.  … She knew the breeze would know what to do  as it has blown since ages of time. It would give meaning And value to our  otherwise ordinary lives… Some say it is here  where timeless wi...

For some years now I have been making most of my own jewellery and accessories. Its opened up an avenue to release some of the creative energies I once lost along the way…A process that revitalises me.  In this space of handwork I go by the name Imani and enjoy featuring my work through my photos on instagram   Imani Kipepeo  . With each piece or collection made comes  a carthatic way to draw out some insights that help me in understanding and seeing life much more clearly.  I have the honour of having some amazing people dotted all over who wear my trinkets as my work evolved into an accessory store and handmade crafts, healing hub of sorts…. many of my clients come as a result of deep self love and self healing conversations and exchanges rather than as a result of a successful marketing campaign. So today I would love to share with you why I believe that the accessories and jewellery we wear or have around us can be so therapeutic…. It all starts with  t...

In memory of Binya - a sister’s tribute… Inner Voice Finding - 2022  Its been almost three years since I lost my brother, and only most recently that I finally felt brave enough to reread his writings. I still have a range of snail-mail letters, birthday cards, postcards he sent me growing up …there are emails spanning decades…and then, of course, his published work. In all of them, I hear his voice reverberating clearly and resoundingly. Growing up, I liked to share the progress of my home assignments with family… each of them had a ‘specialty’ in something, so I figured why not get a review before submission. My mother, for instance, was an artist. Creating things and drawing things came easily to her, and she had a good eye…she would walk through the steps of, say, drawing a vase of flowers (still life art class) by looking briefly at a vase of flowers in the room and sketch it on paper effortlessly. It was all magic to me, and  I stared at the process in awe… before I coul...

Making meaning with things….@imanikipepeo Dear I, I just thought to Remind Who I am… That I have abandoned all else and surrendered to the power of now.  I, the light seeker…truth quester,  I, the wounded, the survivor, a jester, a lover,  I, tenant of this body.  I, who eased the tight grip of control… I remain, in motion and in stillness I, who goes where it flows… 

Tuning in to the Soulvoice I have picked up on consistently journaling once again after a long hiatus!  Woop Woop!  And its been incredible!  I struggle less with writer’s block, and putting my thoughts down on paper has helped me process and synthesise my ideas with much more refinement. While I still have to type quite a bit due to work and this modern-day life of 2022…  I still clutch to the traditional use of pen and paper. I have retained essential work and study notebooks tracing back ten years which really come in handy from time to time. There are things that simply stick just because I wrote them down. And funny enough, I can decipher my mood and sentiments based on the way I shifted my handwriting. Its like a mood and thought map that only I can understand.  My process in handwriting helps me direct my senses to interact with the present task at hand. The touch and feel of the paper, the pen, nib, colours, the smell of ink, sounds of scribbling are all...

the closing gap of pen on paper,  words slowly shape and form  beginning to take certain meaning. thoughts pour generously dripping and dribbling into sense or non-sense  it all depends on how open we are  to discovery of life miracles and mysteries. Life beckons us to take our seats  at the place secrets are revealed   and if one blinks they may miss its lesson… as it invites us to acknowledge, observe  bear witness to three precious gifts  we often disregard in our existence… Gifts of MEMORY   - bearing vast imprints and inheritance from our ancestors  Gift of WAKEFULNESS   - brings awareness of opportunities that lie in the present moment Gift of IMAGINATION  - formless futures not yet manifested and ease to detach letting them go…

@Sikilizaspeaks, Dakar 2022 This is me recently exploring the sensory delights of Marché soumbédioune in Dakar. Over 15 years ago I visited Senegal for the first time and spent more than four months backpacking and in a mission to discover self and my creative energies.  Sikilizaspeaks in 2007 I was weaning off a very difficult phase in my life my pilgrimage trip was a pathway to find parts of myself I lost along the way. It was also the time I began the journey of this blog. There are no regrets. It is a bittersweet memory as my biggest cheerleader while on this solo trip was my late brother…he encouraged me to photograph, write and be intentional about expressing myself. He bought me my first camera and gave me my first hand-me-down laptop.   I called him Swes but others knew him as Binya He joined me briefly and together we took a memorable road trip to the Gambia, and visited some traditional wrestling events and did some sightseeing, where I got to know and connect w...

Story matters… words matter… pictures matter.  I take pictures. I share stories in this way… And being a snail mail fan taking pictures of places printing them and sending postcards is one of my love languages. That said over the years we seem to have lost the interest and art of sending loved ones postcards. While I know that the world has gone digital and no longer sees value of handwritten letters and cards, I still cling to it. I place a lot of value in making time and effort in handmade and hand written gestures. However, I have often struggled with postcards that paint Africa with very problematic imagery. The  term “Big Five” is thrown around in Kenyan game drives despite its problematic roots.  The phrase coined by western trophy hunters (read as those who kill wildlife for pleasure) who considered the lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo as dangerous but a challenge to hunt and kill. It is not unusual to see bookstores, curio shops and stores displayin...