slip-sliding away…..

December in South Africa has always been a happy time. Unlike the Northern Hemisphere – where it’s halfway through the school year and the dead of Winter – for us, it’s our Summer – and a proper year-end.

Schools close early in the month, and many businesses close in the middle of the month – leading to a pretty ubiquitous holiday atmosphere for the weeks that see out the current year and bring in the new one.

A productive start

It’s also a good opportunity to take a step back from life and reflect on the year that was.

For me, 2019 started positively – having had a month-long holiday over year-end and really feeling refreshed for the first time in a while. The sentiment – and my internal drive to be better – lingered for a few months, before fading – overtaken by the pressures of life, and old habits taking their place once more.

Thankfully, Ramadaan came fairly quickly thereafter – sparking a flurry of activity for me. Along with the spiritual boost it provided, it was also an opportunity to give life to an idea that was in my mind for a whole year: I resurrected my Ramadaan Early Bird series – repackaging and expanding it to a month-long daily programme for AccidentalMuslims.com. Even though I had most of the material already written, the work was pretty intense because it involved preparing two new graphics for each of the month’s 30 days (though we only had 29 this year), along with related tasks. The initiative also expanded my horizons a bit – leading to two radio interviews (on the same day), which was nerve-wracking – because I hate public speaking, and I hate hearing the sound of my voice. But it turned out OK, I think – so I’m grateful for the new experience.

Tagging onto that, I also prepared a few graphic Ramadaan Tips, which got a wider reach thanks to the AccidentalMuslims.com platform.

The revival

The other major project that month was a push to get my book back on track – after it had, once again, fallen into neglect while life’s other tasks took over. Alhamdullilah – I was able to get a printed copy done, and lay some important foundations for the future release. I was also far more comfortable preparing graphics by this time – which gave rise to a new ability to prepare some cool images related to my poetry – both single page graphics that contain just a snippet, as well as multi-page graphics that cover entire poems (though “Attention Please” was probably a bit too long for that format 😉).

That ended up edging me onto Instagram – which is a platform I’d ignored for years because I just didn’t see any point to it, as I already had my space here on WordPress. With the book on the way, and all these graphics now in the mix, Instagram became an attractive promotional channel. My feed is more diverse than simply promo stuff, though, and hopefully there will be more positives that come out of the platform in future.

Lessons learnt

The graphic theme continued into the Hajj period, where I again got to recycle some old material – tips for pilgrims returning from Hajj – into a visual form for the Labbayk.co.za group.

For the two projects that ended up reaching wider audiences, I learnt that we should never become disappointed if we don’t see our work reaching the audience we think it should. Both sets of content had been up on this blog for many years, but had – in my estimation – reached a limited number of people, because I wasn’t seeing the numbers, or receiving feedback in large volumes.

But the work remained valuable, I believe. I valued my content having a positive influence on even just a few people, because my entire purpose for publishing it was to benefit others. It may not have hit the statistical heights back then, but it still achieved its purpose.

And now – years later – that material was given new life and reached a far bigger audience. And while the volume was gratifying, the impact – I think – was also significant.

I also learnt an important lesson – which I probably knew all along:

When you have ideas, execute them yourself. You can tell others, and they may be interested and want to be involved, but don’t rely on them. And do not wait for them – because things often crop up that push your project out of their mind. Just start the work yourself. Others can chip in if they’re available – early on or later – but you need to start, and you need drive it. It’s yours…so never expect others to prioritise the way you do, or put in the same effort you would.

You really don’t need to have it all figured out. And you don’t need to have amazing skills, either. You just need to start.

Drowning

Then came the third quarter of the year – which, in recent years – has usually brought a great deal of difficulty. This year was no different, and I was under pretty heavy emotional and psychological strain just to get through it all.

At that point, the book – which had been three years in the making – almost died. But I realised that this period was going to pass. Challenges are a part of life, and they always pass. You need to ride them out and try to take benefit while you’re in the thick of things, and you emerge with positives which you probably wouldn’t have soaked in if you viewed the events as simply dreadful times you couldn’t wait to escape.

Going public

By November, the uncertainty had dissipated, and I’d mostly moved past the challenges. An extended bout of sickness gave me a good amount of time at home, which – when I was physically and mentally capable – served as a good opportunity to push on with the book.

I set my birthday as the target publication date and went into overdrive – getting everything ready, and clearing hurdles which had held me back for quite a while. I decided that I was going to release the e-book version first, and hopefully get the print one done the following year. I hired an editor, got my newsletter going, and generally organised the final steps I’d need to take on the path to publication.

Unfortunately, a late obstacle arose and I didn’t quite make my deadline. The delay was short, though, and the book came out just two days later. It was a proud day for me, and I went pretty big in announcing it to family, friends, and others in my networks. That was a highly unusual step for me, because not many people who know me in person know that I write. I’ve kept it fairly private all these years.

But I wanted people to know at this point, because I felt ready to share this side of me with real-life acquaintances. In the 13+ years this blog has been in existence, I’ve felt a lot of positivity from my readers, so I believe that the material I’ve put out has been of benefit. Those readers were almost always strangers (though some have now become closer virtual acquaintances), and I felt that if the work has touched people I don’t know, then perhaps there’s a chance that it could also inspire or encourage those I do know.

Following the announcement, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of positivity – which banished any doubts I’d had about whether to share the news with them.

Along with all of this, publishing this book has been a dream of mine for many years, and upon fulfilling that dream (albeit halfway – because I’m not finished until the printed version is out), I wanted to share the news with people who otherwise don’t know this side of me exists.

And even if the book doesn’t sell many copies at all, that’s OK – because I feel a sense of accomplishment having been through this whole process and having something to show at the end of it all. This book will be my tangible legacy that I leave behind once I’m gone: my place in history, secured in more than just the memories of those who will outlive me.

What’s next?

Following that, I’d planned to take a long break before getting to the print version. However, given that quite a few people would like it, and the realisation that my initial ideas for print were more complicated than needed, I decided to move forward immediately. I’m hoping to have the physical version ready in the early months of 2020, God-willing. If you’d like a copy, please let me know.

As for everything else…well, life will undoubtedly throw me more challenges in the coming year – hopefully with plenty of wonderful experiences, too.

In terms of writing, I’m looking forward to wrapping up the book for good – because I feel like it’s dominated my efforts for almost a year and half now, and I need to move beyond it so that hopefully the creativity will flow once more and I’ll have much more new stuff to put out. To be fair, I haven’t been completely stagnant this year. A lot has come – mostly unpublished, and some of it published – such as these two pieces:

But it’s anyone’s guess what’ll happen next.

What I can say, though, is that I’m grateful that this year is over, and I hope that I’ve gained much more internally – in terms of character building, strength, and wisdom – than what I can perceive from all the things that have happened.

What about you?

So, that pretty much wraps up my writing for the year.

What about you, dear reader? What have you learnt, or gained from this year? Have you felt productive? Have you benefited?

What do you hope the coming year holds for you?