Happy New Year 2024!

January 1st is a day of resolutions earnestly made but too often self-disappointedly not kept. 

Our spirit is willing but it has a short attention span.

Every year I say to myself: “OK as of today I am going to eat better, exercise more, finish those unfinished projects, de-clutter closets, do this and that and that and this”.  

Meanwhile, at the same time a little voice in my head says: “Yeah yeah right.  Who are you fooling?  I’ll give you a week and you’ll be back to the same old same old”

This is all inner talk. What we tell ourselves.  What we know we should do, wish we would do but inevitably don’t end up doing.  

But we have no accountability if we make these resolutions in the quiet and only to ourselves.

So this year, something new.

I publicly declare that my 2024 resolution is to release one song a week of mostly unheard material from a children’s album that I had recorded between 2014 & 2016 but never launched.

Before I lost my beautiful Kait in 2018, I recorded almost 40 children’s songs and Kait sings on many of the recordings.  We were planning on a mother-daughter launch as an incentive and something to look forward to while she was valiantly fighting her cancer.  It gave us motivation to look to the future and focus on the promise of what tomorrow could be.  

When my warrior goddess lost her fight, I was immobilized for years. I wrote about those times in several previous stories including this one:

Kait’s Story: LINK

You can also read about Kait’s Comfort Kits that many kind and generous people helped me with when we launched it in 2019.  We are starting to receive donations again so I have plans to start up producing more Kits again.

Website Link: Kait’s Comfort Kits

The first song I want to share with you is an African song called “Malaika” that Kait and I used to sing together in concerts.  

Song Link: Malaika

According to Wikipedia:

“Malaika Nakupenda Malaika” is a Swahili song written by Kenyan musician [Fadhili Williams]. Many people mistake it to be Malaika song by Tanzanian, Adam Salim of 1945. This song is possibly the most famous of all Swahili love songs in Tanzania, Kenya and the entire East Africa, as well as being one of the most widely known of all Swahili songs in the world. Malaika in this context means “angel” in Swahili, and this word has always been used by the Swahili speakers to refer to a beautiful girl.”

You can read more about the song here:  

Wiki: Mailaika

I researched the lyrics online and translated them into English which is what you hear Kait sing on this recording.

Wishing you all resolutions that you will be able to keep! 

You know that this will be one resolution I am going to keep!

Wishing you a year filled with joy, good health and inner dreams come true.