"Byen pre, pa lakay"

This proverb could be literally translated:: " Very near is not home." Back in the days, even now, in some places in Haiti, people have to walk miles to reach some areas and walk back home. Mostly in the countryside, some people walk to reach the work field or the market to buy or sell stuff.

We have a lot of energy at the beginning and in the middle of the journey. But at the end, it is a different story. We are tired and tend to have a pause under a mango tree or at a friend's house. And the fatigue and discouragement tend to invade us and give us the will to take a nap. The longer the pause, the further home seems to be, even though we are very near.

And people say that even though we are very near, we are not home yet. We need to double or triple our courage and strength to take the road again and finish the journey.

The same thing tends to happen to most people on something they undertook. When they are almost done, they tend to anticipate the joy of accomplishment. And if they are not careful and continue to work with the same discipline, they probably won't accomplish it.

Some artists have many unfinished pieces of art because they continue to say it needs a little work to be done but never have the time or the will to get it done. This also happens to people in other areas in life. Every time they are almost done with something, they know they can finish it any time with no real effort, they leave it and start another one.

Haitian say " Byen pre, pa lakay" to remind themselves that something is really done or accomplished when it requires no more work.