The longings of the heart

There is something I have been longing for for seven years. Seven long years and still counting. Waiting has been getting tougher with every year. Langston Hughes, once wondered, poetically, whether a dream deferred does stink like rotten meat or sags like a heavy load. It is that and more, but only if you haven't learned to wait patiently.

It's never easy to wait but it's always worth it

When you have learnt the art of waiting, it ceases to be tough to wait. Patience takes the place of impatience, and your character is transformed to such maturity that emotions and longings bow under your authority. You pursue your dreams and ambitions with confidence, knowing that no matter how long the night drags, the morning will come with its gladdening light to dispel the darkness.

Because of how much the world has changed, it is easy to deny somebody an opportunity based on their present circumstances. Jesse Jackson once said, "I was born in the slum but the slum was not born in me." I love the veracity of that statement. Every human being is born with an inner greatness that will shine through if you know the truth and walk in it without giving up even though it might take quite some time before you get there. 

In my boyhood I longed to grow beards like my father. I used to look myself in the mirror, and it was always painful that instead of finding one strand of beard, my chin seemed smoother than the day before. Now I have a beard after many years of waiting (haha!), and it is with this patience and endurance that I can even smile as I wait some more for what I have been longing for for seven years.

I know soon—very soon—my dream will come true and the rewards of my waiting will be tastier than the sweetest grapes and sweeter than crusted sugar or "a syrupy sweet" in Langston Hughe's poem.