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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Hakuna Matata on our little island

Our son-in-law, Michael, is learning Swahili and spending a month in Tanzania with his studies. To my surprise I learned from him that the phrase Hakuna Matata is actually Swahili!
This is what Wikipedia says about the phrase: Hakuna Matata is a Swahili phrase that can be translated literally as "There are no worries." Its meaning is similar to the American English phrase "no problem" or Australian English phrase "no worries" and is akin to "don't worry, be happy". The phrase was made famous by the movie The Lion King.

How cool is that? In Linnea and Michael's apartment are little post-its with Swahili words everywhere. The only one I remember right now other than Hakuna Matata is Choo which was posted on the toilet.


It's easy to say "no worries", especially if somebody else has a problem. Not always so easy if it's our own. From the outside we can easily think: "Why don't they just do that?" or "Why don't they just say this?" To be in someone else's shoes is hard and I would say impossible at times.

So - I like the phrase "no worries, be happy" - life is short and we are supposed to have joy in this life along with learning to live and hopefully gaining wisdom and knowledge along the way.

Worries are lining up in our lives and it's important to push them aside now and then and even pretend they are not there.

A no worry day is like the one we had with two of our munchkins last Saturday. We packed them up in our little bicycle trolley and went on a ride in the beautiful sunshine on our little island. Bliss!


2 comments:

  1. I love it when you see the hakuna matata in your life...

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  2. Thanks Nea. Something we need to remind ourselves of more often maybe?

    ReplyDelete