Gabriel Tyler Oloya-The living arrow of God

In 1923,Kahlil Gibran, penned these words on children in  The Prophet

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backwards nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the  path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrow may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.


These words echoed and continue to echo in my mind from the 6th of July 2012 when our third son, Gabriel Tyler Oloya, was born into this world.
Our lives have, for a third time, been tailored around our Gaby. He is a delight to have. Our joy, like that of countless parents out there, knows no bounds.

In the midst of the screaming, shouting, crying and yelling, that smile that steals through his innocent face, lights  up any room and like a  hot knife through butter, melts any heart.It is at such moments that one thinks of the future that awaits this living arrow of God.

As parents anywhere will tell you, we all want the very best for our children and will go to great lengths to ensure that they are comfortable. That the path we have chosen for them will lead them into their dream lives.

More often than not, we are the result of our parents wishes, dreams and desires. Rarely do parents decipher and construct a system that amplifies the wishes of the child. Maybe because a child's wish is like a monkey. On one tree this minute and on the next in the next second.

The parents then decide that it is best that they fashion a system that is more predictable. Sadly that system is passed on from generation to generation. It does not allow for individuality. It promotes band wagon thinking as opposed to individual brilliance. It is a system that gives life to phrases like, ...like father like son. The fruit does not fall far away from the tree. You are a chip off the old block and so on...

When you consider the words of the Lebanese sage, certain truths hit home. Only God knows what is in store  for it is He who...sees the mark upon the path of the infinite...it is God, who in this particular case, has fashioned Gabriel in such a way that he will fulfil his role on this beautiful earth. As parents, we can only provide such circumstances that will permit the flowering of Gods chosen design.

We are the bows that will unleash Gabriel into the path that God, in His infinite wisdom, has seen fit to lay in his heart.

As we bend like flexible bows that ensure that the flight of the arrow is straight and true, one cannot help but ask God to ensure that Gabriel Tyler Oloya grows up with the gentility,grace and beauty that flows in his mothers blood.  May this arrow of God spread hope and joy. May his smile echo in the hearts of all.

Like that sure arrow in the quiver,  may he slice through the air and land in the bulls eye of his dreams.

From which market?

In the market place of life, ideas are adorned with the most attractive clothing. The main purpose being that they attract our attention in such away that we buy and own them and enjoy them.

What happens, when the idea that you have bought from the market place of life, holds you prisoner. Shackles your feet. Entombs you and suffocates the very life out of your frail body. Do you have the wherewithal to swim against that tide onto the shores of a new you.

Often times, in my disscussion with my friends who have unhealthy stomach extensions, they keep reminding me that they were born with a fat gene. The kind of gene that goes out of its way to seek and infuse the body with fat, fat and more fat.

They invite me to look at their parents and grand parents and true to their thinking, they are from an environment that encouraged the kind of eating habits that can only give birth to the mother of all unhealthy circumstances. In as far as they are concerned, it is a gene thing. In as far as life is actually concerned, it is a choice thing.

We are not our genes. We are the thought process that goes on each and every second of our lives. Just like the thought process that goes in our minds when we are in the market place, we determine how to live and how to make our lives better by considering what is in our mind.

If we buy into the idea that we are vessels of some gene and that, like a rudderless ship, we toss and turn according to the dictates of the waves, that we have no power to alter the course of our lives, these words should remind you that you have bought a fake product from the market place of ideas. You have been sold a huge lie!!!

It is a lie that you have no choice but to be a slave to the conditionings of your childhood. It is a lie that you can only be as good as your surrounding. It is a lie that you are destined to live as your clan mates live. It is a lie that your aspirations only stretch as far as the tip of your nose.


Those lies will hold you prisoner. Those lies will entomb you in a pot of poverty and sickness that will shock your creator. Those lies will blind you to the obvious infinite possibilites that are silently withering in you. They will gently but surely guide you onto that smelly and filthy dung heap of failure.

When you meet your maker, He will look at you in amazement. He will stand back. He will look deep into your soul and mutter under His breath: I gave you will power. I gave you a brain, my most effective invention. All you could do is live a life that is as sorry as it was painful...oh man oh man...


Truth be told, there is not a machine on the face of this earth that is as efficient, effective and powerful as the human brain. It is in the proper use of this brain that we can break free of all those chains that are holding us in. Holding us to the false assumptions of those who lived before us.

It is Lao Tzu, that Great Chinese philosopher who said: "When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."

That is the crux of the matter. We must let go of all those things that we are, if we are to breath life into what we might be. All that we are now, is as a result of the ideas that we bought in the market place of the live we have lived thus far.

We must let go of all those lies. We must look into the biggest market known to man. If you look very carefully in the mirror, you will see that that market rests very solidly between your ears.

Your mind is master and to paraphrase one of those exciting poems:

You are the captain of your soul
You are the master of your fate.

Licked by hunger

It has been said that hunger can drive a man to the four corners of the kitchen in search of  food in order to satiate his hunger pangs. Woe betide you if you stand in the way of a hungry man.You will not win. To save yourself from any harm, let him have his way.

In many instances, my brain just shuts down when my stomach is missing the vital life force that causes my brain to propel my body forward. I just have to find food. I will turn the fridge upside down. The pots and pans will not and cannot escape my vigilant search for that bite that will infuse me with life.

Once I am done with that angle, I can smile and look around me from a fresh perspective.

When you consider the extent to which we go to ensure that all is well in the central command post and how many obstacles we overcome to get that area in order, you can only sit back and be amazed at the power of hunger and desire. It would serve us well to translate that drive and determination into all and every area of our lives.

Many of us get too comfortable with what we have and are too plain lazy to stretch beyond ourselves, consequently we stagnate. Like a body of water that lacks continuous freshness, we become stale.

Before very long, we are irrelevant to those around us. The company will kick us out because we no longer bring value to it. Our children will look for better role models because we do not seem to flow with them. Our spouses will begin to tolerate us as opposed to love us because we are no longer interested in looking after ourselves.

 Our bodies will slowly,but surely shut down because we ceaselessly fed it on unhealthy food and denied it the physical motion that lubricates it. Our minds will, like a disused muscle, lose its elasticity and like a zombie, we shall walk around with vacant eyes...

BUT, it does not have to come to this. In us is an inbuilt ability to transcend any and every circumstance. In His graciousness, God gave us the will power to decide: to wallow in pity or to take charge and move on despite the negativity that seem to overwhelm us. 

Once you identify that which causes you to hunger; that which shuts your brain down; that which propels you to go through, over and around any challenge in front of you, you will have mined a priceless gem in your heart.

The youth in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya shed their blood because their hunger for freedom weighed more than the fear they had for the ruthless and corrupt leadership that steered their countries. Thankfully for most of us, we do not need to suffer at the whims of other men in order to discover that unrelenting hunger that causes a sane human being to erupt with seething passion.

The honest truth is that, when your heart is licked by the flames of hunger and your feet rock to the pulsating beat of desire, nothing is impossible.

Your hunger for a healthier and fitter body will drive you to avoid all processed foods. You will fall in love with the organic stuff that builds each and every part of your body into that which is pleasing before God.

Your hunger for a fine tuned mind will drive you into the arms of great reading books where you will intercourse with great minds. Your thinking will be amplified in ways that you once thought impossible. Your approach to life will change. Your horizon will stretch much further than your eye can see.

Your hunger for better company will force you to sieve the company that you keep. Those that weigh you down with their negativity and cloud of pessimism are best kept where they belong: in the dung heap of "should have been or could have been."  As the parched earth welcomes the rains, you should embrace those that lift you up and shine a light into your possibilities.

When you are licked by hunger, there is nothing that will stop you from seeking that which will cause you satisfaction. It is just as well that hunger can only temporarily be satisfied. For every goal that you attain, there is another goal to aim for.

Gather the pieces of wood. Light them up. Stoke the fire. May the sparks join hands and erupt into a huge flame that will forever lick at your hunger.