5 For Sanity: Adult short stories of hope that are 5-minutes in length about South Africa’s culture of hope, hopefulness. Stories inspired by beautiful South African truths — from witty local expressions to intriguing customs that are always paired with a life lesson from The Rainbow Nation. Truths that can enhance the quality of any life, especially when you need it the most.
A quick read for when you need a moment of sanity…
5 For Sanity: South Africa’s Zen, how hope is set into motion through South Africa’s culture of hopefulness.
H. L. Balcomb’s writing philosophy: We mature not by age, but by stories, stories that help us to be our own kind of brave.
Short Story Sample:
(Noun): The Rainbow Nation: means different yet connected to the same source of hope.
South Africa has twelve official languages, and that is being practical about the choices because the list can quite easily grow. In fact, today, there are over thirty living languages spoken throughout South Africa — keeping in mind that South Africa’s size is about 1/8th the size of the United States.
With such a rich diversity, there also comes the challenges of varying perspectives on politics, religion, and history to different cultural beliefs and societal customs that don’t always line up, not even closely.
Diversity didn’t work for the Tower of Babel; how does it work for South Africa?
In South Africa, we have the rainbow, as a symbol to pull inspiration from. It offers us three important lessons. First, the rainbow shows us that we can be different yet connected to the same thread of existence. Two, the rainbow’s purpose is simply to embody — hope into action, especially after a storm. Three, the rainbow shows us how beautiful it is when we build unity out of our collective diversity.
We may not always achieve this ideal, yet the rainbow’s gift to South Africa is to show us the way through its example, living its truth through its symbolic hope. A rainbow of diversity connected yet unique just like the colors of the morning or the evening sky, if we take the time to look up toward — the hopeful horizon, that space and place in time that holds all hope — our hope.
The Archbishop, Demond Tutu, leaves us with these concluding thoughts: “We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.”
Starting with the holding spaces of our own heart…
A rainbow of possibility, when we use our differences as the steppingstones for a richer understanding of the world. The varied colors of a rainbow, different yet connected to the same starting point called…hope. And we’ll know when we’ve reached the other side of the rainbow’s end when we can hear former President Nelson Mandela’s words when he said: “I am not an optimist, but a great believer of hope.”
A rainbow of limitless possibilities, believers of hope….
A starting point without an ending point because that’s for us to create, a point of focus known as…hope turned into action.
Different Opinions…
We don’t always have to think alike…
Difference is where…
The root of caring resides.
When we use our differences
As steppingstones of deeper understanding.
5 For Sanity
October 30, 2022
166
5 FOR SANITY: South Africa is fondly called the Rainbow Nation. It is a nation formed from and by hopefulness that I fondly call South Africa’s Zen. This book offers 5-minute stories of hope inspired by beautiful South Africa words, the natural beauty of South Africa, animal and plant alike, which is naturally filled with many life lessons, and interesting cultural mannerisms that are unique to South Africa that are often slightly humorous yet always endearing.
Little treasures in the form of 5-minute stories that can uplift the quality of any soul through South Africa’s hope set into motion.
(travel, short stories of hope, interesting things about South Africa, how hope is set into motion, the Rainbow Nation)