Danie Botha's Blog, page 3

Welcome home, Son

Airports are magical places. Beehives of busyness, bustling with humanity returning from faraway places, or, setting out on new adventures. A hubbub of possibilities. It is impossible not to be touched, not to be impacted. The eleven hours trans-Africa flight from Johannesburg to Frankfurt, flying coach, is at best a taxing experience—requiring the frequent stretching […]

Reflections on being human

The human condition. How formidable we are! How fragile and fleeting we are! From the beginning of time, man has searched for meaning. Conditio humana speaks to the basic lot of mankind—about existence from the very first breath to the last on one’s deathbed—and everything in between. Isn’t it grand to be alive? And yet, […]

What coffee shop patrons can teach us about life and ourselves

Paying attention always pays off. It saves lives, it colors and flavors life, and is the best way to accrue knew knowledge. How boring and drab isn’t it when we go with eyes closed through life? What better place to observe mankind than in coffee shops—they reward the intentional observer with endless material to ponder […]

What coffee shop patrons can teach us about life and ourselves

Paying attention comes with endless perks. It saves lives. It colors and flavors life. But, it requires effort and practice. By applying the art (and habit) of paying attention to the cultural phenomenon of coffee shops and its patrons, you can reward yourself with a goldmine of opportunity and material—those locales give the willing observer […]

What coffee shop patrons can teach us about life and ourselves

Paying attention comes with many perks. It can save one’s life. In all other circumstances, it serves to color and flavor and enriches life. Who wouldn’t want to escape a drab and pallid existence? “All you have to do” is pay a little attention! Performing observational studies in a coffee shop is an art. It […]

7 Life lessons learned from a random excerpt from my novel, Maxime

For the love of reading! What we won’t do to slip away for a couple hours and curl up with a book without a worry in the world? My love affair with books started soon after I learned to read in Kindergarten. Learning to write followed next. The writing of books, much, much later. We […]

Behind the scenes of The Scent of Jasmine

Life today is fast-paced, often hard and harsh, and yet, also filled with beauty and wonder. It certainly would make life much easier if there was a simple recipe for, ‘How not to die in the 21st-century,’ for both patients and doctors. Life, however, doesn’t work this way. Living in North America for most, for […]

Live on the edge like an 81-year-old sprinter

You don’t need to jump off buildings with a wingsuit to live on the edge. Neither do you have to participate in extreme activities that can get you killed to find fulfillment and answer your calling in life. You can achieve all that by just running as fast as you can. Fortunately, there is more […]

Bus ride to nowhere

Snobbery often comes at a price. Toward the end of my first high school year, grade eight, Dad was transferred to the western side of Johannesburg. The move required me to change schools. Near the new home were two eligible high schools. The closest school was out of the question—they were archenemies of my previous […]

Writing Poetry is like High Intensity Interval Training

Life is good. Life is also hard. Life is a smorgasbord of joy and sadness, of victory and defeat, and of healing and illness. Life is often complicated. Time and again it isn’t fair. And yet, amidst the horror, sorrow, and abuse, life is also filled with beauty and awe. And still, many of us […]