REFLECTING ON A MISFORTUNE

As human as we are, there was a time when we had to deal with a misfortune at a particular time in our lives. Misfortunes are here with us, they are a part of us, and it's quite unfortunate but they are inevitable. Death is a misfortune, sickness, losing a loved one, being the only bread-winner in your family and losing your job and so on.  Misfortunes come in different sizes and shapes and they are objective. Not finding my socks in the mornings when I am getting ready for work is one of my great misfortunes because I know I tend to be careless more often than not. Yesterday, something dawned on me and I thought it wise to share. Sometimes the things that happen to us which we consider unfortunate are the very things that we tend to find strength and inspiration from. Picture this, you break up with someone you felt was very likeable, someone you loved, someone you gave your all to; I mean your ALL to. Due to this, you cry and stop believing in love. But see this, it is in this same thing called love that you would realise that before you can love someone, you should first learn to love yourself and understand that the greatest love of all is being able to love yourself first. That way, you would have enough positive energy to find yourself falling in love again.
As a Ghanaian, in my opinion, I consider the erratic cuts in power supply as one of our greatest misfortunes as a nation. But personally I have benefited greatly from this misfortune. I tend to be very careless but due to the power cuts, I have become very organised. I iron all my clothes, ensure that whatever I need are put at the right places. I have become very economical. We have learnt how to manage with whatever short time of power supply we get. We have come to learn to expect anything at any time. I know others can say same in other areas of their lives. What we consider a misfortune has thought me and probably others a great deal. I am not in any way glorifying misfortunes or justifying our erratic cuts of power supply. I am just saying that if we looked deeply into our "misfortunes", we might find an inspiration and not give that misfortune the joy of seeing us stay down forever. As you face your misfortune today, ponder over the fact that most of life's greatest inventions were as a result of a misfortune. My name is Edwin Oko Lamptey and THIS IS A RANDOM AFRICAN THOUGHT.