Kakati is a Luganda (my mother tongue) word - most closely translated into English as the word "Now"
Kakati signals and signifies much more than its simple translation suggests. It is nuanced and has multiple meanings. Depending on context and emphasis of pronounciation it can signal intention, inquiry, pleading, urgency, thought/reflection, planning, connection, specificity, unfolding insight, exclamation, attention, empathy, narative, suprise, anticipation, immediacy, This Step and NEXT STEP.
I have adopted Kakati's many meanings as a way of encouraging myself into deeper and more wholesome reflection on what is happening in a given moment.
Kakati therefore becomes about capturing this moment in its fullness of meaning. It is about developing a reflective practice that is linguistically embedded in my thinking.
Used well it can be an aid to reflection. A way of prompting ourselves to pause even stop. To notice our thoughts and thinking and take hold of our feelings and meanings. We can then gently take hold of elusive moments of deepened awareness and guide ourselves more mindfully towards aligning intention and action or discovering alternative perspective and possible meaning.
In retreats - I may use "Kakati" informed reflective thinking as an aid to awareness - in so doing noticing new feelings, possibilities and meanings and:
- Sitting quietly with them
- In quietening safe intimacy - finding deep, possibly hidden points of sensation, feeling and emotion
- Exchanging acknowledgment and extending compassionate regard.
- Possibly opening a door that lets in a different light and lightness -possibly even deepeer meaning
- Releasing selves and finding self
- Taking hold of this moment of meaning: Kakati: when inner clamour is stilled, whole attention is enjoined and vague intuition crystallises into insightful meaning - even "truth."
- Settling: being alone, yet feeling enjoined. Being in community even though still, physically apart and in different places.
