‘Swimming is simply moving meditation.’ Cesar N. Caharian I am not a superstitious person, but I have my rituals. It is a safe thing to fall back to in an ever-changing world. One such ritual I have is when it comes to swimming. Swimming and I go a long way back. When I was nineteen …

Recently, my grandmother gave me a suitcase. It was brown, small and worn out leather, and it was filled with newspaper clippings, black-and-white photos, magazine articles, old passports, worn-out Bibles, cufflinks, and even an expired bank card. This suitcase had a special distinction to it because it once belonged to my grandfather, Christiaan ‘Goggie’ Johannes …

My friend recently gave birth to her first-born, a beautiful and healthy daughter. What I appreciate about our relationship is that she’s been honest with me from the very start. She has not sugar-coated the challenges of being pregnant, giving birth and finally, the major adjustments she’s had to make with taking care of a …

‘Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.’ Psalm 9:10 In every relationship, trust is vital. Without trust, a solid foundation cannot be built. The key to building long-lasting relationships is to have complete faith in one another, knowing that you can depend on each …

I give you this to take with you: Nothing remains as it was. If you know this, you can begin again, with pure joy in the uprooting. Theresa Brits I believe that this will be a year of starting anew. There has been an uprooting in identity, belonging, and purpose in the last two years, …

There’s this website where you can calculate the number of days you’ve been alive on this earth. Accordingly, I have now been here on this earth for a total of 11,167 days. I’m from the Millennial Generation. If you haven’t yet heard or read of these generational calculations, read this chart – it is a …

‘It is 365 years since the first Dutch settlers arrived at the Cape but no more than 180 years since Afrikaner nationalism gained momentum and barely 100 years since Afrikaans was formally recognized as a language.’ John Battersby Yesterday I was at a restaurant, and as I was playing with my 2-year-old nephew in the …

There’s a scene in the 1964 musical film My Fair Lady where Freddie, a young man hopelessly in love with the main character, Eliza Doolittle, visits the street where she lives. She refuses to see him, so he wanders up and down her street. It’s getting dark and the streets are empty, but Freddie is …

It is 1995. Someone asks me what I want to be when I grow up. ‘A writer,’ I say without hesitation. I am six years old and I have yet to learn how to read and write. ‘What do you want to write about?’ the same person asks me. ‘A book,’ I reply. ‘A book …

The relationship between children and their parents can be a complicated thing. Our parents are complicated human beings themselves. We are an extension of them, so that already makes us complicated as soon as we come into this world. We carry their DNA, their personality traits, their physical attributes. We can also end up carrying …

Dit is die dag voordat ek en my ma Kaap toe vlieg. Ons beplan om eers Stellenbosch toe te gaan, dan Robertson, Gansbaai en uiteindelik Blouberg. Ek voel alreeds onrustig oor die padreis, maar ek kan nie my vinger daarop sit nie. Dit is vreemd, wat ek het nog nooit so gevoel oor enige iets …

I met tannie Jules around the time I became well-known in Bloemfontein as a motivational speaker. She was a friend of my grandmother’s and they both lived in a retirement village just outside of Bloemfontein. My grandmother quickly became friends with tannie Jules; conversations with her was engaging, interesting and never dull. My grandmother had …

It is a rare thing, meeting someone who leaves a considerable impression on you. Someone who carries an air of fire around them. Who has this undeniable passion within themselves in the way they carry themselves. They are well-read, well-traveled and well-equipped to handle all kinds of challenges that life throws at them. They are …

A few years ago I was the leading actress in a theatre play called ‘Kinders van Stilte,’ which was adapted and translated from the Broadway play ‘Children of a Lesser God’ by Mark Medoff. In this theatre play, I had the role of Sandra, a 26-year-old deaf woman who refused to speak like a hearing …

Disclosure means to make ‘a fact, especially a secret, known.’ This is my secret: I have unintentionally lied about something for years. Eleven years, to be exact. Now I need to bring it out in the open: I had friends in high school. Five of them, to be exact. The final nail in the coffin …