Peace Within

I wake to sweetness

every single day.

I feel guilt as well

that these days,

I mirror more

the positive side of life;

that I’m not brought down 

by these thrusting issues

looming around me.

I’m mostly shocked 

that I smile, laugh 

dance and skip,

when I should shrink 

into my unpleasant shell

And groan till 

I groan no more.

And to think that I do 

not make much effort

to cage the impact 

of an awful mood

is a rare miracle.

It’s as if there’s nothing

At all to fuss about.

Now, they say

I’m the fairest of all.

Haha, how exact 

their words!

I’m at my best since 

manner began

 to proclaim so.

Feels like I walk around

defrauding them?

Guiding them

 to believe what

Isn’t real?

Should I wear dilemmas 

Like befitting apparel,

And walk the boulevards

As though I’m insane?

– To show off the details of me?

 I’m strong enough

 to impede 

those annihilating

 emotions.

And I’m blessed 

to be this way.

I’m blessed to have God.

Peace within.

Word Around Me: Extravagance

Hi everyone! 🙂❤. Hope you’re all doing great. It has been quite a while. I’m busy with an inescapable situation and hopefully, I’ll be back before next week. Can’t wait to read all your beautiful, inspiring and impacting posts.

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My son said something about being wasteful yesterday evening. In his words he said, ‘Mum, I think we’re being extravagant.’

At first, I was taken aback. Guilt crept into heart. I checked myself, did some mental calculation of my spendings and could not place my hands on any wasteful spending. Then I began to giggle. He grinned and we stared at each other for a while. I asked him a simple question.

‘Can you give me an instance where “we” were extravagant?’

‘Yesterday you bought lots of snacks and drinks for us,’ he said.

OK. Guilty as charged but I wanted to make sure he understood what “extravagance” was.

‘What do you understand by extravagance?’

‘Being wasteful of money… buying what you don’t really need..or buying too much of what you need,’ he said.

‘That’s right.’ I said. ‘But what did you say before I bought those snacks and drinks?’

‘Hungry?’

‘Yes. You said you were hungry after school and I didn’t want to keep you hungry till we reach home. It means you really needed the snacks to curb your hunger.

‘Oh yeah,’ he said. ‘Oh, that’s true.’

I was still uncomfortable because that was not the only day I bought snacks and drinks for us on our way back from school. Why then did he make such an observation?

I kept thinking about this into the night. Sometimes, we hear angelic voices, calling us back to the right track. It’s probably a future wake up call to be wiser with my spendings.

In the past I have bought things I thought I needed but ended up not using them. Sometimes, I give them out and sometimes, I keep them as if they’re monuments.

There’s so much of extravagance spending going on in the world and it’s okay to buy many cars, change wardrobe every week and eat out in an expensive restaurant everyday, if you’re worth that much of an expenses. But looking at it from my African perspective, there are millions of people out there who could be in need of that extra wasteful expense.

There is no better way to heal the world than to give out to the less privileged so that those who have no clothes to wear, who have no food to and who have no shelter over their heads would have something to lean on.

See you soon❤🤗

Have a great day.

Still Searching

He fell in love with a song from the late 1970s’, Still Searching by Bongos Ikwue. It was one of his father’s favorites and his mother always swayed to it each time it played. He loved the song so much that he played it after tying the knots, in his car, in the house, in his office and anywhere else he could.

🎶🎵🪕🎼
I've been searching for
For true love
And I'm gonna
keep on searching
Till I find.
Nothing good comes easy
Best I know
Gonna keep on searching
Till I find...

For an obvious reason his wife hated this song and wanted him to stop listening to it. She said it’s the worst song for a happily married couple.  

‘This old school, honey reminds me of the good old days. That’s all.’ He said as if present days were bad.

‘Give it up,’ she said, ‘Can’t stand it. Can’t just stand it.’

His brows heaved up and his eyes narrowed when he saw her red eyes. She was certainly reading meanings into why he listened to the song. None of his explanations made her feel better about why he listened to the song. For him it’s about the sound, nothing else. He loves the sound, a lot.

He couldn’t just stop. Not yet. Not ever.

 One day he came home and she was gone. She left him a note; 

I hope you find your true love. If I’m the one, get rid of that song and come get me. You have only twenty four hours starting from now. – Love

He glared at the note. Such a trivial matter! How could she?

But he had to choose between her and his choicest old school song.

He got rid of the entire album and wondered if his father could have done the same for his mum.

Dogs Don’t Care

You own the house, the tenant owns the dog. You have to travel and stay away for quite some time for a reason.

Finally, you decide to go back home and on reaching your house you discover you can’t enter your own house. Your tenants furious dog is right in front of the house about to make your life a living hell and refuse you access to your house. It begins to growl and bark.

Your tenant is not around to make the dog behave. You have to hasten outside the gate and have to stick outside the gate to wait for your tenant to come back.

Your tenant comes back and takes the dog away. You look at it, it growls at you showing its wicked eyes and teeth.

The next day you step into your compound, about to go out, and the dog on seeing you, makes at you. Your tenant has gone out again leaving you and the dog. The tenant forgets to put his dog in the cage.

With desperate effort to prevent a fatal attack on you, you drop your briefcase and run.

The dog grabs your briefcase and keeps watch over it. Your phone is in it. No means to call your tenant to come to retrieve your briefcase.

You’re angry and have plans to disallow the dog in your compound. The dog looks at you again and growls and barks. It lunches an attack, you run to the gate, the only option you have. On reaching it, you discover it has been locked, your tenant has locked it from the outside forgetting you’re still in the house.

The dog rushes closer, nothing to do but climb the wall and that’s what you have to do.

A passer-by sees you jumping the fence, alerts other passers-by and they chase you to catch you. You know that thieves stand a good chance of being stoned to death in the area.

You run and run until you meet one of your neighbours who stands to explain who you are. But you are no where to be found.

When you later come back you have to send your tenant and dog packing.

~~~

Staying away for too long can make you a stranger in your own home.

Chase your dream but always know the road that will lead you home again.

Burden And Compassion

When people have no option than to remain with us because we pay them salary or feed them or own where they live or buy what they wear, when they depend on us completely and have no other option than to depend on us, they can endure anything to keep getting the privilege we offer. They can submit to eating our poop, licking our feet and offering their backs as our legs’ rest. It’s human to feel that since we are doing all these things for them, they owe us their lives in total submission and obedience. That’s “humane”. But it’s  inhumane to subject those we cater for to physical and emotional torture because we know they have no option than stick with us. Thinking about the helplessness of their situation, we can offer to help these people and treat them with compassion.