For about 2 minutes, the person was on the other side of the phone was asking whether I was still there. I was there, indeed, but lost in thought – NO – wonder. That succinctly captures it. I stared at the full moon that had formed in the skies illuminating the earth with its bright light.

Scientists say the moon was formed about some 4.5 billion years ago, from debris left after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia. But that sounds like gibberish to me, and I'm sure it does sound same to you too. Believers know its origin, and it has nothing to do with what the proponents of Charles Robert Darwin’s theories postulate.

I realized I was not paying attention to what the other person was saying, and before I could mutter a word to signify my presence, the call had already been ended. I hit the ‘end’ button on the phone immediately I called back because something struck me.

Initially, I saw the moon producing light from its estimated 10,921 km circumference – bright light. All the while, clouds were passing it by. Then some very dark thick clouds passed and covered the moon, but the light to the earth wasn’t completely cut-off. Let me hasten to add here that my vicinity had been ‘dumsored’, or the transformer had generated a fault, as Gridco and ECG would have us believe. But the point I’m making here is that [paid-for] lights were out. So no alternative lights. It was at that moment that I realized the presence of the twinkling little stars hanging up there in the skies. They would have been the ‘supporting casts’ if it had been a movie.

The thick clouds passed and the moon shone again. Then more clouds passed; some completely covering the moon, others, the moon could pierce through to be seen. Then I realized I had been taught two valuable lessons in life.

First, I wondered what the moon was doing when the dark thick clouds completely covered it. “Did it stop shining”? “Did it go on a break”? I asked myself. No, it didn’t. It was still performing its function – providing light – even when an obstacle prevented it from doing so. It bided its time, waiting for an opportune moment to shine, and boy! it did immediately the clouds passed. And when other obstacles came along, it wasn’t completely hidden – it was visible albeit a bit hazy.

Isn’t it same with life? We face obstacles in our everyday lives, don’t we? But most of us give up in the process. We throw our hands in despair and lose hope. We say to ourselves: “this is it, I am finished!” Admittedly, some of these challenges make us want to knock on the doors of death so our struggles are alleviated. But if only we would not lose hope, we would see that the clouds would soon pass over, and we would shine again. But when the dark clouds cover us, let us not stop shining – let’s turn it up a notch. Let us not stop learning. Rather, let us stop crying after a while. Let us stop whining.

Secondly, during the time the moon was completely covered, the stars provided back-up. They held the fort until the moon came back to life. I asked myself whether there would be others willing to hold the fort during my dark moments. Maybe a few, I thought. Can you find such people in your life too?

How would there be such people if we fail to help another in his time of need? How would they exist when we watch them hit the self-destruct button? How would they be present in our lives if rather than standing by them, we go to town with their predicaments like the drunken town crier beating the gong? If you haven’t realized it yet, there is the need to build genuine, edifying, long-lasting symbiotic relationships wherever we find ourselves. These are the ones that would hold the fort and prop us up when we fall.

My name is Paa Kwesi Bentum ‘Biskit’ Williams, and I choose to be a moon and a star henceforth!

More Vim…Let’s Go…

The writer works in the finance department of The Multimedia Group, but the views expressed in this piece are not those of the company. He can be contacted at pkbwilliams@yahoo.co.uk. Click here for other articles he’s authored.