SHAABI

The reflections of the past paints a picture filled with colour..glamour...love and wisdom!

Colours stream across and the memories run a distance from Paris to Dakar. Clashing from time to time and changing the landscape...creating no clear picture, none whatsoever!!



 Along this journey, I met a man....80 years young. My first thoughts of this pale fragile figure left no indent in my mind. He was like every other I had met before. Or so I thought.

He moved at a pace most old men do. Shuffling his feet, step by step, from a frame that was wrinkled in every corner. I had a thought that mirrored the desire to not be like him. Or maybe it was a consideration of what I would be like at that age. My face shrugs and the lines on my forehead portray the discontent of such a notion.

I was wrong... because he matched every move I made.
 HE TOPPED THE CHARTS WITH ME. He made me see that being young was just that. He strode the park in bliss; oblivion created by the curse of the brown bottle and yet he stood strong.

Shot for shot we led the course together. There I was, with the strength and physique of a leo, against the mind, wit and fatigue of a wiser man! And suddenly the picture changed.

Yellows, oranges and greens embrace the entire screen. There was something unique about this old man. His uniqueness becoming more and more obvious. I was about to learn that happiness is just that. What did I expect of an 80 year old frame, mind and character? Someone who sits quietly and bothers no one? Is that what I thought?

I was mistaken and he was proof of that. His shuffling walk almost, yet impossibly emulating the ancient rural Egyptian dance after which he was aptly named. Its energies moving from the male Tahtib or warrior dance to the female Ghawazee that has captivated Western travellers for centuries. His spirit touched me somehow and spoke of ancient desires and secrets which passed through his soul. This aged warrior showed me that happiness at his age was to live life to its fullest. Wake in the morning, do whatever makes you happy and sleep as little as possible. Spend as much time laughing, drink and be merry (if thats what you did or wished to do).


It is said that the life of man is determined by the achievements of his past. Now who is to judge and say the past wasn't what any man wanted?



I say........... for the expanse of a man's life, let him be happy.

I say, let men be Shaabi

Patrick Terry Galloway

Copyright (C) 2011

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSPOkc6Xd3M (Shaabi dance)

My brother, My friend

A tribute to Mozzie Joe Galloway
Raindrops fell fom the sky.   
Each drop signifying the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. They symbolise a tribute to life and they continue falling.....like clock work!

I recall the story where God promised that rain would never flood the earth again. 
 My mind races, tracing the greatness of the flush from the sky. likening it to the many days on the earth. Each drop cooling the land from the heat of the day.

I remember that there is a God. A good and lifegiving God. And so I go on, moment after moment, day after day; grateful that He has blessed me abundantly; grateful that He has blessed my children, family and friends! Grateful that like every drop of rain, He has blessed us with life, for every second and every minute of everyday.



However, what I do not forget, is that just as He promised not to flood the earth again.... the drops of rain will also end and so too does life.
 At least it does, upon this earth, upon this land.

Mozzie, my brother, my friend. Our days will never end. There is a promise that holds true.... that in the herein and hereafter..........


we live on.

Copyright © 2011

Author: Patrick Terry Galloway