All That Jazz

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First, the gas explosion. He was 14, just a boy. A gas leak at the neighbour’s house that they had gone to investigate. He was standing behind his neighbour who had discovered that the leak was coming from the servants’ quarters. This was almost 29 years ago, November 25th, 1993, on Wanyee road just off Ngong Road. The sky was a cloudless blue, no birds gliding in the sun. A perfect day for a boy to die. 

How he recalls the explosion; there was a whoosh sound, like air being sucked and the void being replaced with something else, something dense and overwhelming, like being blown by an elephant’s trunk. This was way before he felt the heat, way before some of that heat found its way into his lungs and his body. This was when adrenaline was doing what adrenaline was supposed to do in such situations. In hindsight, the explosion itself was actually quite unremarkable, non-dramatic even. He recalls turning around and seeing the neighbour’s daughter who was behind him, burnt in patches of red and black, screaming her head out. Outside, a small crowd had gathered and they looked at him like they had seen a ghost. This compelled him to look down at his arms, this is when it dawned on him that something terrible had happened to him because his skin was torn from his arm, revealing raw flesh, strips of skin hanging from his arms.

He recalls bits and bobs of the journey to the hospital, because he kept losing consciousness; perhaps there was the howling of a siren, maybe honking of cars, there could have been agitated voices, fragments of strange voices speaking in urgent terms. There might have been moments where he came to recall being laid on a casualty stretcher, the stinging cold of its steel, him screaming because now the pain was like someone tearing at his skin from his body…bright lights overhead, masked faces peering down at him, the sound of instruments against kidney dishes, doctors, lots and lots of doctors. 

He recalls waking up briefly and seeing his mom; hysterical, completely out of her mind. Blackness. Mostly he associated consciousness with pain. Oh the unimaginable pain. The type the Bible might mean when it talks about gnashing of teeth. He stayed slightly over a month in hospital, just lying there smelling his own charred skin falling off his body. They injected all manner of drugs in him to keep him sedated and to fight off bacteria, beating down his defences. 

All this while he’d not even seen his face. This one time he was scheduled to have a saline bath, which is when they lower you into a saline solution in order to peel off old skin. “I asked the nurse if I could look at myself in the mirror,” Aaron Rimbui says. “She hesitated. She obviously didn’t think it was a great idea. But she allowed me eventually. I looked at my face for the first time after the accident and I couldn’t recognise the face that stared back at me. My face had been disfigured, it had also swollen twice its size.” He stood there, numb, staring at the man in the mirror. 

Then came the long journey of specialists and reconstructive surgeries. The keloids, big bumpy lumps, sprouted on his face, his ears and neck. His face sometimes looked like it was boiling. He went under the knife a few times, skin grafting; they peeled skin off his thighs to patch areas of his face and hands. 

“I’m 43 but my skin is 29 years old.” He chuckles. 

We are seated in a sort of a popular upscale Nigerian restaurant called – without irony – Lagos Restaurant and Lounge on 49th street. This is where Aaron holds court on most Sundays, nursing his drink of pineapple juice or eating their Suya burger.  He’s taller than he looks seated at the piano on TV, rushing towards ceilings and chandeliers at 6 ‘3’’. It’s Fall so he’s in a brown blazer over a polo shirt and hightop Nikes, looking like an inner city villain, albeit a villain who drinks pineapple juice which could be the worst sort of villainy because pineapple is a tropical fruit for happiness and sunshine.

Being a teenager wasn’t easy with a medium-rare to well-done face. (Too soon?)  It’s hard enough dealing with pimples, now imagine going to high school with a burnt face. Nairobi School was gracious enough to allow him to be a day scholar while he sought treatment and therapy. He harboured great insecurity. “I thought how I looked defined how the world saw me. I felt like nobody would ever see me as Aaron.”

He drifted towards church, Nairobi Baptist Church. “My dad had earlier bought me drums, a 4-piece drum set which I’d mess around with. I loved playing the drums, then in Nairobi School, I picked up the piano and I liked it. I had an ear for tunes. There was something about the piano that he didn’t find in drums. There is something about the sounds from the keys, how they seemed to linger in him longer than any sound from any instrument. The piano seemed to know the pain he was going through, the loneliness of being a teenager with a burnt face and the nightmares that he would have at night. Nightmares of him running while burning, engulfed in flames. Or massive, furious balls of fire coming at him. Things blowing up. Burnt faces that resembled his. When he sat at a piano it soothed him like a lover who knows your language without speaking a word. 

“Only problem was that my fingers had been badly burnt so I couldn’t move them very well.” He held up his slightly darkened hands. “The weird thing is that when I started doing physiotherapy my therapist said, look, I need you to be exercising these fingers frequently to bring back the functions of the tendons. I told him that I actually played the piano and he suddenly snapped his fingers excitedly and said, that’s it! Keep playing the piano, it will help with the healing of your mobility!”

So he started playing the piano not only because he loved it but also to heal. 

I gasped. OK, I didn’t gasp, I sort of sat straighter in my chair and remarked in a Eureka fashion, at the unique trajectory of his story. I mean, I said, it’s because of the gas explosion and the fire that led you here as a musician. One had to happen for the other to happen and the other couldn’t happen if the other didn’t happen. The fire turned out to be a blessing. “It’s like a great irony, isn’t it?” I said. 

“Yes,” he said, lifting the fried eggs from his burger with his fork and placing them on a side plate. I stared at the poor egg, rejected and cast aside by the virtuoso. “You could say that the fire accident led to the piano. Sometimes bad things have to happen to you for your purpose to become clear. Of course at that time of happening you don’t understand or appreciate it. You are bitter and you are angry and you ask yourself why me? Why does it have to be me who burns?”

Of course we all know his ascent to fame as producer and performer, working with Eric Wainaina, Kanji, Kijiji records, worship team member at Nairobi Chapel, Mavuno, Youth For Christ USA tour, Four winds band, two albums out, Safaricom Jazz Festival, Tusker project fame, Winter Jazz festival Copenhagen, concerts in SA and tours in Europe, production of commercials and involvement in political campaign, Tinga Tinga Tales, capital jazz club, Sauti Sol, just many balls tossed in the air. His piano led him by his hand into rooms where he was recognised and adulated. “Fame is like this big wave that you need to know when to ride and when to get off. Because it can take you anywhere.” 

Through all this he met a girl in church and married her. Years rolled by but no baby came along. “I can tell you something about infertility and about how it reflects on you and it impacts on you as a person.” He says. “We tried everything and we kept trying and trying but we just couldn’t get a baby. You want something so badly but it doesn’t happen for you and at some point you say, well, this is not for me, I have accepted this fate, I surrender. We tried for close to 10 years and then suddenly one day my wife fell pregnant.” 

In 2016 while playing at a gig in SA it dawned on him that he had gotten off the rails. He was crashing with a friend or a relative, I don’t remember which one, and he was in the bathroom brushing his teeth while seated in the toilet seat, which is not a normal thing to do; sit on the toilet while brushing your teeth. He felt heavy and burdened. “I was doing something that I loved doing, playing shows but increasingly I was feeling a great sense of loss, of emptiness.” He stopped brushing his teeth and with his toothbrush stuck in his mouth, he realised that the feeling was actually sadness. “I was unhappy,” He said. “Being an artist in Kenya is difficult and often thankless. We don’t appreciate artists and artists work hard, man. I was working hard, taking on shows and things, sometimes paying for my flight abroad so that I could perform. Being an artist often felt like you constantly had to start from scratch. It didn’t matter that you had done shows that people knew of, you have been on TV, people know your work and your name, but you still have to do a dance for corporates. You still have to prove yourself over and over again. That collective cynicism does something to you. I had been filing away things for years, my burn accident that although I had been to therapy I still had a lot that I hadn’t dealt with. Then the general industry abuse, maybe abuse isn’t the right word, but just the feeling of having to constantly do more and more to be recognised as a professional but not process how that made you feel. These things were piling around my life, around me and in SA, I finally crashed. Not soon after I was diagnosed with clinical depression.”

He had reached the ceiling of his career. “You also get to a point in your art where you feel there is nothing else to do. That there is nothing more to move to. It makes you question your journey and your fate.” He decided he would try it out in the US. And where would you take your talent that is both inspirational and scary, something that would challenge your artistry? New York. “It’s where all the creatives go to make it. I felt like I needed to test my art once again.” He applied for a Green Card which would end up taking a few more years, years that his depression also ate at him. “I put so much importance on going to the US that the thought of not moving filled me with dread and anxiety.”

Papers came through and they moved to the US as a family but shortly after the pandemic hit and he was rendered gigless. “Not long after, my marriage that I guess had been chipping away slowly, disintegrated and ended. I had to move out from our home in New Jersey, leaving behind a daughter I love. I can’t tell you what that did to me or how hard this period was, staying with friends, not knowing if things would ever get back to normal and I’d play again. The sense of failure and fear was immense.” He chews on his burger. “Divorce is like two sellotapes that were together suddenly being ripped apart and essentially when that happens each sellotape leaves with a part of the other. I remember standing at a store, choosing a mattress…a mattress! That’s how my life had flipped on me.”

The lounge is playing Nigerian music. Inside the lounge might as well be midnight with its purple moody lighting, but outside in the loud, screeching streets of New York, it’s 2pm. It’s full of West Africans eating and talking and girls in skimpy clodhez, lacy black things, gyrating and taking selfies. 

I ask him about divorce and the opinion of the church seeing as he is born again. “People who knew us were pretty shocked, understandably. But I can’t control what people think or say. I don’t live for people. I think when your marriage doesn’t work, there is an unspoken feeling of failure on your part. That there was something that you could have done better. But you learn that you can’t hide from judgement. You take it and you find a way to move on. It isn’t easy, of course, in fact sometimes it feels near impossible. I was 41 when my marriage ended and sometimes it comes to a point where you all have to accept that you believe in different things, that you are on different journeys and that God is sovereign and there might be no immediate answers to questions; questions like, why want a baby for so long and then when I finally get a daughter, things collapse? But each time I have gone through a difficult time in my life, what I suffered in that gas explosion gives me context, because I always say, “If I survived that, surely I should be able to survive anything.”

He’s rebuilding now. He has his music, his piano, to help him through this journey. He just finished a tour of the US by Tiwa Savage. He teaches music to public schools in the Brooklyn area. He’s busy. “I’m starting to like being alone, I’m working on myself. I’m trying to figure myself out even now. I’m enjoying the silence now. I have chosen myself. You have to choose yourself before you are chosen.”

“What would the Aaron of Nairobi tell the Aaron of New York?” I asked him. 

He chuckled at that and gave it a long thought. A very long thought while the music filled our table and the cutlery on it. “I would tell him that you can plan but sometimes you don’t have control. Things will change but you have to be aware that things might go in a different direction, you can’t be in charge of all outcomes. I have been trying to protect myself from the pain of the fire and all other pains that have visited me in my life, but maybe I should be more attuned to the pain of others, to live daily and be mindful of others.”

He considers that answer a bit. I asked him about marriage, what he has learnt. “If you notice subtle things, don’t ignore them. Be more assertive with what you want regarding how you feel about things and your needs.”

We pay and step outside in the noisy streets of New York with all the sirens and feet and cameras hungry to document experiences. He has long graceful  strides, his long hands hang loose by his side. He crosses streets purposefully, with the same attitude and confidence of a pimp going to set a record straight.  

“So who are you now?” I asked him, “are you able to answer that question?”

“I’m Aaron, I’m a father and a guy figuring out life.” He says, stopping at a light. Monstrous American cars zoom past. “My mission is to give people hope and music is what gives hope. I’m a man. A dude. I have emotions and feelings as a human being and not just one who plays the keyboard. I’m a living organism.” He’s walking again. “ I’m in the business of healing. The colour of my life now is violet. I’m an artist, but it’s not who I am. What I do comes from who I am.” He turns to make sure that I’m getting this distinction. I tell him I really love that. I really really love that. ‘It speaks to me,” I tell him. 

“You know the rebirth story of the eagle?” He casts a sideway glance. The reflection of the man in his sunglasses nods. That man is me. “For the eagle to reach its lifespan of 70 years it must make some hard decisions. In its 40th year its long talons can no longer grab prey for food. Its beak is bent and its wings are heavy due to its thick feathers. It makes it hard for it to fly. It can die or change, but the change lasts for 150 days. If it chooses to live it flies to a mountain top where it knocks its beak against a rock until it breaks it, then it waits for a new beak to grow. When it grows it pulls out its talons and when new talons grow it starts plucking old feathers. This process is self brutalising and painful but the eagle has to do it to live longer. After five months the eagle is reborn and can live for 30 more years. This story means that sometimes we need to get rid of old memories, habits in order to survive.” That sideways glance again, only this time it’s laced with a faded sly smile, “ I’m an eagle.”

 

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185 Comments
  1. Wow
    “The rebirth story of the eagle?” He casts a sideway glance. The reflection of the man in his sunglasses nods. That man is me. “For the eagle to reach its lifespan of 70 years it must make some hard decisions. In its 40th year its long talons can no longer grab prey for food. Its beak is bent and its wings are heavy due to its thick feathers. It makes it hard for it to fly. It can die or change, but the change lasts for 150 days. If it chooses to live it flies to a mountain top where it knocks its beak against a rock until it breaks it, then it waits for a new beak to grow. When it grows it pulls out its talons and when new talons grow it starts plucking old feathers. This process is self brutalising and painful but the eagle has to do it to live longer. After five months the eagle is reborn and can live for 30 more years. This story means that sometimes we need to get rid of old memories, habits in order to survive.”

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    1. I had to research about that eagle rebirth story. The bird experts say nay. Never happens.
      https://www.10000birds.com/the-eagles-rebirth-yep-seriously.htm

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  2. Thanks for the story, Biko.
    Power to all the eagles at various stages of their restoration and rejuvenation. May we live again.

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  3. I am an Eagle.. Ain’t we all aspiring to live long..
    Finding oneself and knowing oneself is the best thing one can do to self…

    … I can’t control what people think or say.. I don’t live for people….
    Exactly live your life… People will talk but eventually move on to new gossip.
    Thanks Biko.. Good read as usual..
    Welcone home.. Jet lag biro mana rumo

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  4. “I would tell him that you can plan but sometimes you don’t have control. Things will change but you have to be aware that things might go in a different direction, you can’t be in charge of all outcomes. I have been trying to protect myself from the pain of the fire and all other pains that have visited me in my life, but maybe I should be more attuned to the pain of others, to live daily and be mindful of others.”
    This and the eagle analogy, A1!!!
    Good read

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  5. ’I am an artist, but it’s not who I am. What I do comes from who I am.” …………”This story means that sometimes we need to get rid of old memories, habits in order to survive”………i can resonate with these statements!

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  6. I am an eagle too. I first heard that eagle story from my high school principal and my grades had really dropped and I didn’t feel like myself anymore. Every time I feel like I am failing and performing below my average, I tell myself that I’m an eagle, go back to the drawing board and restrategize

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  7. I love your blogs ,because they are as real as it can get, Real people ,going through real Things ,meeting with a Real God .Relatable things and not some motivational Stories ,we are all trying to find our bearing in this so called life .We take it One day at a time .Great Read

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  8. . “I thought how I looked defined how the world saw me. I felt like nobody would ever see me as Aaron.”
    I see you Aaron and I hear you.Your story is such a powerful one with too many rigid stones on the way but you said sometimes it’s sad that we have to self brutalize in order to get a clear view and to rebirth new memories.

    Also,I do sit on the toilet while brushing my teeth. It’s an habit I can’t get rid off

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  9. That last paragraph is the deepest thing I’ve read in a while. Incidentally, I’m 40 and I made such a drastic life decision. I’m certain I’m on the right path. I needed to make that decision. To do what fulfills me.

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  10. “Sometimes we need to get rid of old memories, habits in order to survive.”
    Tough decisions have to be made, aye?

    Growing up, I used to think that those living beyond the borders of Africa had a different idea of pain and joy and that they had more of the latter. But after reading numerous stories of people abroad and after having some of my friends live abroad, one in New York, the truth echoes rather loudly, “Joy is joy and pain is pain everywhere!”

    Mr. Eagle, keep at it!

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  11. Biko!!! Thank you!
    This is deep and inspiring! Aaron you’ve done well! You ain’t given up on yourself! You’ve kept moving despite the storms you’ve faced. Nothing beats confidence in self! Cheers! Continue soaring!
    Today, I am reminded of our School motto “Soaring on wings like Eagles” (Isaiah 40:31) and the best part of today is learning and understanding the process of the eagle’s survival!

    I too am an Eagle! I am proud of myself! I am inspired!

    Thank you Biko and Aaron!

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  12. I have loved reading this so much. It is so deep and it makes you appreciate the little things about life. I have learnt that accidents happen. Our bones shatter, our skin splits, our hearts break. We burn, we drown, we stay alive. Thanks Rimbui.

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  13. Powerful.

    Am in tears cus l know this is story is changing me, interesting and motivating all in one package.

    Thank you Biko

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  14. Sometimes life can get stale. It sort of feels like you’re spinning your wheels in the mud, and getting nowhere. I am glad that Aroro is reinventing himself. Thanks for the amazing story chocolate Man, and welcome home.

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  15. “I would tell him that you can plan but sometimes you don’t have control. Things will change but you have to be aware that things might go in a different direction, you can’t be in charge of all outcomes.

    Also the: The Weight of Grief.
    https://thewallflower254.wordpress.com/home/

  16. Bikos it’s Tuesday, I gotta read Biko (see what I did there). This Aroro guy is a wise man…may he re-invent himself and create the best version of himself.

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  17. Insightful. We all have a story. Not to appear judgemental buh tbt broken marriage is amongst my worst life fears. Love and light upon you Rebirth, Aroro!

  18. “I wonder if he did a DNA test.” ~This thought refused to leave my mind all through the story. Anyways, I watched his day-long interview on CTA youtube, man, the guy has a story and a half! I love your work, Aaron.

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  19. Wow! Yes Aaron you are an eagle and yes rebirth yourself because I have been planning to take my daughter to Aaron Rimbui Piano School after her high school, didn’t know you relocated. So yes come back the world is waiting eagle!

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  20. Aaron Rimbui is a great Inspiration. The best we have in Africa.
    Though haven’t seen him mention Lavington United Church but I believe LUC played a very important role in his music, family and life.
    Aaron is the face of ” you can make it in life”
    Big up bro.

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  21. Hate to spoil a good story but the Eagle story apparently is not backed by any scientific fact https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rebirth-of-the-eagle/

  22. I loved this story.
    A lot of things here for me to emulate and chart my next course of life…

    Thank you Biko, keep writing

  23. A Chameleon that wants to survive a burning bush must drop the majestic walk of its ancestors! You gotta do what you gotta do man!. No two ways about it.

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  24. Stories of divorce are scarying to newly married men. We are at edge of it. It’s tastes sweet and left us wondering how it turns out bitter at the end tail.

    1. Its the focus that shifts. Priorities change. Rather than be grateful, the couple starts to take each other for granted and eventually resentment crips in.

      The grass starts to look green accross the fence. Tell you what bro, stay focused and dont compromise on your vision for your life, marriage and family. There is hope

  25. Another perfect story to remind anyone that you are purposefully here and you deserve to be here. The world does go round and with that we gather enough experiences to impact those around us. Midas touch on that Piano Aaron!

  26. And I love the bit about the eagle.
    “Sometimes we need to get rid of old memories, habits in order to survive”
    Kudos Mr Eagle, keep soaring❤❤❤

  27. Its the divorce for me, that you wait for a baby all those years, then when you finally get it the divorce comes, man its un explainable. When it comes to divorce again you’ll always feel there is something you could have done differently, that feeling keeps creeping in once in a while, plus the judgement from church folks.

  28. I went through a very painful separation. Though not yet divorced. Shortly after the pandemic after 6years in marriage waiting for a child. And just when we’ve concieved, things happened and we went our separate ways.. 2020 was a year of many marriages breaking!

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    1. Marriages were tested for their mettle and those that could endure the test broke down. Sadly mine was a casualty too.

  29. Too soon Biko. Too soon.
    Your sense of humor never misses, and thank you Aron for sharing this with the world, love and light on your journey.

  30. Too soon Biko. Too soon.
    Your sense of humor never misses, and thank you Aaron for sharing this with the world, love and light on your journey.

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  31. Oh nooo Aaron and S?!!! Oh nooo this hurts. I had thought you would fare better than I and the ex. Waaaaaaa. Life growth healing all that jazz can’t happen in marriage yaea? Anywho. May time and healing happen to you both. Biko are you going through something? I am just curious with how curious you are of our scabs from divorces especially.
    I am looking for love again and please write more about love second time a charm.
    Adieu first marriages.

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  32. Powerful and hopeful message there. I always thought at 40 is when you’ve lived enough to “figure out life”, but Aaron’s story differs.. what is is wrong with life?

    https://onlineletstalkblog.wordpress.com/2022/11/08/muchos-gracias/

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  33. “Divorce is like two sellotapes that were together suddenly being ripped apart and essentially when that happens each sellotape leaves with a part of the other. I remember standing at a store, choosing a mattress…a mattress! That’s how my life had flipped on me.”
    This is me now.

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  34. Aaron used to play the piano at our church during concerts and indeed he is a blessed man. Not many can play by the ear. This is such a timely read for me and thank you Biko for the beautiful piece. The insights within are priceless. May God give Aaron wisdom as he finds himself anew.

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  35. Biko, yes, too soon!! For this story, that 70k that we have been collectively mad about was worthy it… I think…

    Sending lots of love to Aroro. What a deep piece! You inspired many of our children. It has to be one of the feathers on your cap!

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  36. I’m an Eagle, I belong to the #EagleClan. To reach the peak of your life, you have to take tough decisions. I’m ready to be reborn.

  37. Aroro is such a brilliant musician .I have been inspired by his craft for a long time .May the next phase of his life bring him light and peace .

  38. Oh how I love this piece. It’s beautiful. You write beautifully Biko and Aaron is a beautiful human being . I’ld love to meet him one day. If you happen to talk to him, tell him his life is an inspiration and he is doing well. He will be just fine

  39. This:
    “Be more assertive with what you want regarding how you feel about things and your needs.”

    I first saw him at Mavuno and I remember thinking “dude is taaaall” hehehe.

    Very inspiring,

    Plucking and breaking off the old….awaiting the new

  40. Very timely and encouraging….

    My take away, paraphrased

    … And that God is sovereign and there might be no immediate answers to questions; questions like, why want a baby for so long and then when I finally get one, I lose my wife?……

  41. I so love this! Aaron, may you soar high with your new wings. May authentic love find you. May you thrive in your purpose.

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  42. Wow, quite some deep read here from Aroro…….you have to choose yourself before you are chosen. Good stuff Aaron.
    May life be kind to you.

  43. Wow! More grace to him, bless his heart. We learn and grow everyday, just learned about the story of an eagle today! Yay!

  44. Something about getting to 40 and realizing that certain noises is not important anymore. Silence becomes your best friend. Well in Rimbui, though gutted about your marriage but as you said, “God is sovereign and there might be no immediate answers to questions.”

  45. Sometimes bad things have to happen to you for your purpose to become clear. Of course at that time of happening you don’t understand or appreciate it. You are bitter and you are angry and you ask yourself why me? Why does it have to be me who burns?”

  46. Every great man in the scriptures had to undergo a season of silence/troubles/trials for them to fulfil their purpose, from Abraham to David, Moses to Joseph and finally the Savior. The thoughts that you invite during that season is what determines whether you will make it to the other side with a good attitude or a bad attitude. What you dwell on, swells on. Keep a positive attitude and good things will come your way…Proverbs 4:23 says, “Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life”

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  47. Haven’t been here for some time.
    My life is unfolding before my eyes.
    Great story, lesson learned.
    Feel like an eagle.

  48. Beauty for ashes version 2 loading for Aaron. I believe. May it be glorious…

    Thank you for being vulnerable…as a man am encouraged. Story of valleys and mountain tops… victory and triumph. We become better not bitter…

    Your music is something else…don’t get me started. Crucial keys…you are a great man…

    Biko & Aaron..you look alike…somewhat like A&B. Close enough…

    Cheers to a wonderful fatherhood journey!

    That’s one hell of a good story. Thanks guys.

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  49. I knew about the eagles rebirth story but I just didn’t know how gruesome it was. Your presentation Biko is out of this …well maybe not world but Universe.

  50. Arise oh Phoenix……
    had wondered where he’d disappeared to Thanks Biko…
    He has an equally splendid sibling…..Tim or something who’s an excellent conversationalist online Best wishes Aaron…. Music outlives our emotions and our souls heal heal repeatedly My keyboard is done……

  51. ‘Divorce is like two sellotapes that were together suddenly being ripped apart and essentially when that happens each sellotape leaves with a part of the other.’
    This process is tough. I know.

  52. I thought I knew Aaron Rimbui, turns out I did not! I only knew him as a Jazz artist but not the person behind the Jazz! Goes to show that everyone has a story. Thanks for bringing this story to us. All the best in the next chapters of your life, Aaron Rimbui!

  53. Aaron, I saw you and I know you thought I didn’t.
    Your scars – unique.
    Your music – note-filled airwaves, pregnant…bursting with emotions- carefully synced; perfect…in-tune.
    Your life, your story – hope for so many.
    You. Are. Everything….and then some!
    Thank you for sharing you.

  54. Wow. What a powerful story. One thing stood out though, the irony of that gas explosion.

    I can’t imagine how many of us are a walking shell yet so bubbly on the outside.
    May Love and healing be a portion for us all.

  55. I love the fact that you are still figuring out life. None of us has got all the answers….. keep soaring eagle.

  56. I”’m starting to like being alone, I’m working on myself. I’m trying to figure myself out even now. I’m enjoying the silence now. I have chosen myself. You have to choose yourself before you are chosen.”

    You are not alone on this alone. We are many trying to work on ourselves. Keep at it!

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  57. Wow, this story gives me all the feels. When we read a story we can put a face on…. All the feels happen. Thank you Aaron. Indeed you are an eagle.

  58. This is the most inspiring thing I’ve read and just when i needed a pat on my back that I am doing well or maybe reassurance that it’s okay not to be okay.

    I feel more than inspired.

  59. “….but maybe I should be more attuned to the pain of others, to live daily and be mindful of others.”
    Powerful.

  60. The rebirth story of an eagle part was a lightbulb moment for me. It hit me how cautious I’ve been with life, not wanting to take some steps because I know how painful the process will be, how long it might take to finally get to my feet…Now I’m thinking what if it doesn’t happen that way? What if I go through all the pain and stress that comes with rebirth, which version of myself will I get introduced to at the end?
    This piece is very inspiring.

  61. Beautiful story, wonderful life lessons.
    Am here wondering why another younger eagle doesn’t help the older eagle to remove the beak and talons all at once.. HaHa

  62. Sometimes bad things happen to make way for good things. And no man is certain about the future. I’m still trying to figure out mine too, middle age crisis they call it.

  63. I’m an eagle too, I just realized that. Sometimes such stories just set things straight for you. All the best Aaron as you navigate life. May peace be your portion.

  64. OMG, I never comment. But, this story, the last paragraph, to be precise, resonates with what I am going through! I love how we learn a lot from creatures like birds. Thank you Aaron for sharing this story and letting us know that there’s more to the glitz and glam of fame!

  65. Good for you Aaron, it’s never too late to find yourself as long as you’re still breathing. The next stage will be even more rewarding given that you’re living for yourself as well as for others now. Life had a reason for taking you where you are now, and your purpose will surely come through from what you’ve experienced till now.

  66. Wow..This story is speaking a different yet same version of my story. We are alphas. We shall live long after 43 years Aaron.