J. Francois Barnard – February 2017
Three hundred years ago, my ancestors traveled from Germany to the harbor of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, to set sail for Africa. With them they brought their Christian Faith and their dreams for a better life.
The Cape of Good Hope gave them exactly that – hope. They set off as farmers cultivating the land. They moved a little more inland towards the Little Karoo and later took part in what later became known as the Great Trek.
J. Francois Barnard – 7 April 2018
In you, and in me, is a void. This is the void that we can fill with many things, but nothing fits well in there except for a dad. He fits perfectly into this void because it was made just for him. It is what I call the Dad-Void.
There are times, however, when it feels as if he does not fit properly. As he tries to take his place there, it hurts. That is simply because he gets into that void with all his baggage. The Dad-Void is made for dad alone, and there is no room for his baggage. That is the time when you chuck him out again.
J. Francois Barnard – 1 November 2019
Yes, it happens. Hopes and dreams get scattered. Try as you might, you could not prevent it. And there you are: devasted and degraded; broken and tearful.
But does it have to end there? How do you pick up the pieces and move on again?
Forget about the rebound relationships. They will probably leave you more scarred. You can ask me. Been there. Done that. Got the dresser full of T-shirts.
J. Francois Barnard – 1 November 2019
I recently had my eyes tested again. The optician tried her best to get me to use new multi-focal “computer glasses”, but it was a bad experience. I reverted to glasses which are fixed at one distance and it actually works for me.
My old glasses are now retired in a plastic bag and into a drawer. They are five years old and in a frame repaired so many times that nothing except the lenses are original. I watched them in the drawer and that little bag took me back to 2006.
J. Francois Barnard – 11 April 2014
Why it always worked like that, I do not know. As if it was not enough for me to bring up my offspring, I also had to raise other mother’s children too! At times I felt like sticking a label on a forehead, send the kid back to mommy with the words: “Job incomplete!”
I started my Information Technology business in 1992 and worked alone for a long time. By 1996, I made my first staff appointment. It was a young man 20 years of age.