I do not particularly have a muse, or a preoccupation. I am not exactly in the mood to banter, neither have I come to speak big grammar (do I normally??). I have only come to this page to reiterate that the Lord God is on the throne and that He remains there. And that as long as we know He is there, no matter how bad, how dire, how challenging, how horribly terrifying the situation is, we have nothing to fear. As long as He remains on the throne. The day you feel that He has moved, then know it is all over! But really, if anyone has moved, we know who.

I stumbled on a station reading the news this morning, and from the moment I keyed in until the end, it was all bad news. BAD, from beginning to the end. But I thought, I am not in Oslo, I am not in the Philippines where not less than 50 people have died in a flood, I am not in South Korea where a fatal landslide have claimed lives; but I do have my own  share of challenges! However, I chose to believe that as long as He is on the throne, all shall be well.

I may not warrant His attention, He may not be pleased with me, the timing may not be right, but I appeal to His sovereignty, if He can make His one and only son die when I had no idea I even needed help, haba,  why not when I am aware that I need help; how can You not?

I have not come to tell a long story, just to reiterate (oh yeah) that the Lord is on the throne o, and I (you) have nothing to fear. Whether we understand it (actually because we don’t!), and because the waiting is so long, the soul is sick for hope deferred, rest assured that the Lord is on the throne.

Choose to believe, and be free oh.

TGIF Muse

I cannot, for the life of me, imagine what brought this muse on at this time.

But why is it people have such an expectation, such a high expectation of others? It puts too much pressure on people. Methinks.

But, this is the main thrust of my muse this morning: just because I happen to ‘not to care’, nor have an expectation where people or friends are concerned;  whether you call me when am ill or not, whether you visit me or not, whether you accompany me home to bury my mother, (who’s been dead more than 10 years anyway) or not, whether you accompany me for  my sisters’ wedding  in ‘our village’ or not, whether Church people are concerned about my welfare or not, whether you come to my wedding or not! etc etc….I am wondering if it is not wrong to do the same to people just because I do not mind if they do it to me?

Like my good friend (I probably shouldn’t mention names here, but they know themselves!), we hardly ever call each other to check up on one another, when I am ill, she may (no, she does not!)  drive to my house to check up on me, and I do not mind at all, because whenever, absolutely whenever I  call her for an issue, she gets on top of it. For as long as I can remember, she’s always done that. And with this kind of understanding, our friendship is ‘secure’. No fights.

That I do not want to travel to Port Harcourt, or Abia or Damaturu to attend a wedding or a burial, does this make me a bad person? Someone says some things you have grace for, others you don’t. However, just because I do not have these expectations, should I now subject my friends, or people generally, to the same? Should I now not show up to fulfill their own expectations? I don’t believe I should, but neither do I want to be pressurized! Hmmm, talk about very thin lines…which, by the way, I have been trying to blog but the thoughts just won’t come together!

I guess it could be said that an understanding of the strengths of each person is necessary to know how to deal with them. Still, there are friends I get into a huff with just because they do not do things that I would normally do for them, Hmmm, talk about hypocrisy, abi na double standard? Which one e be? Again, thin lines.

Let me judge myself, and I would apologize right here, if I have been a little less forthcoming in your expectations of me, (rolling eyes) but while this is not an excuse, the kind of life we live today is a selfish one. We blame circumstances that surround us (and Lagos generally, for those living in Lagos with all of its challenges). However, they say that a ‘friend’s house is not too far to visit’, no matter the challenges! So traffic, rain etc is not really an issue here. Where your ‘treasure’ is, there your heart is too, abi? Selah.

Does this solve the issue? I guess not but the muse continues (in my head at least!)

Abeg, how did I get on this one oh?!

TGIF….and be free….flood or not!

Wetin You Carry??

I gats share this experience I had last week. I really wish it was funny!

You see, shey everyone has something they can never do without, something they must always have on their person, abi? My own is my handbag. I am totally lost without it. I am not lost without my phone like some people o. Nah. But the handbag? L O S T. I need everything in my bag, at any point in time, so safer to have it at all times. (Voila pourquoi I dislike purses, too limiting).

So last week I went to the embassy. Hmn. I have refused to think about this thing, and have begged God to, in His infinite mercy, mercy because it was just plain silly, smooth over the error of 'handbag forgetfulness!'

Eh hen, so I went to this embassy o, where,  for some reason, my name was not on their list,  and so, while I waited for them to go in and check, the combination of my file of docs and handbag was getting heavy! I decided to go drop the handbag in the car, feeling I had all I would need for this 'brief stint at the embassy'. I didn’t know I would spend the entire day in there (and having had experience with embassies, I cannot explain how I came to deceive myself thus, its unforgiveable really!). And of course, I spent hours and hours in there oh!

At this point I ought to tell you what can be found in my bag: a shawl, a book, purse, check book, small sewing kit, hand cream, phones, pens, tissue and the most important of all robb. Yeees, robb! That’s my own special brand of lip gloss/stick, so laff all you want (oh, don’t waste your time recommending any other form of lip balm, nothing works). Well, so here I am in this room on this fateful day, bearing only an envelope of documents and nothing else. Bored out of my head cos I had no book to read, my lips throbbing with discomfort because I didnt have my special gloss, I was freezing (my hands turned, not blue, but white) cos I had no shawl, I needed to use the ladies and that was another drama because there was no tissue and no hand cream...I was fit to crawl up a wall oh. But that was not the cake or the icing on the cake sef! By the time I was called for interview, I realised that my old passport, which I was meant to have put together with the new one, was in my handbag, yes...in the car! How stupid. I kept asking myself why in the world I thought I could survive without my handbag. How?? All I could tell God was, you know I am not usually this (well, 'very') careless, You know! I asked the lady to let me go get the passport, because ‘my car is right outside the embassy’, your guess is as good as mine what her response was!

So, wetin you carry? Would you be alive and well at any point without your handbag?  What would you feel absolutely lost without? Pray, share....and...

Be free oh!

Tayo Aderinokun

(Inspired by Fola Adeola’s Tribute in The Guradian of today).

I was going to write about the rains today but then a friend drew my attention to this tribute and these thoughts came to mind.

First, that life is really nothing except it is lived doing what you need to do, enjoy doing it and that would be your purpose. The dictionary defines purpose as ‘the object, towards which one strives for….the reason for which something exists…’

Then the question becomes, what is my purpose? What is my dream, what do I desire to do?? According to Steven Pressfield “don’t deny the world of your contribution. Give it what you’ve got.” Again question is: what have you got??

Secondly, that money is good. Even the bible attests to that. ‘Money answers all things’, ‘money is a defense’. So we should desire to be very wealthy. Did Abraham and all his children not have wealth? Was Solomon not over rich?? Again I ask: but what would you do with the wealth? What value would you add? And please, do not tell me you are not rich, (as an aside) how many of you suffered from the recent scarcity of kerosine? How many people even remember that there is such thing as kerosine? I am guilty here, if ‘guilt’ is the word. What I am trying to say that our circumstances, dire as they may seem, are not as bad as we think, compared.

The message of the Kingdom is to ‘love and help the poor’. I know for a fact that the muslims also take alms giving serious; I grew up as a muslim so I know. Help the poor. What are you doing with your money? Ok, ok you are not stinkingly rich yet, but the little you have, what are you doing with it? Who or what are you helping? What values are you adding? Do we sleep well on any day knowing we have done good that day?

Thirdly, that dreams are good only to the extent to which you actually actualize them! Grammar, but the point is, an idea is birth in your mind, what do you do with it?? Maybe that is your ticket to getting there! Fola and Tayo started a barbers shop in Ikoyi because there was none! The man was going to start a gym in Kano because there was none! A need gives birth to a dream!

I have just recently moved to a place where I have to drive in an ocean to get home. In short, the place I moved from also have an ocean, so…). Please imagine how people who have no cars manage.  We see okada riders throw school children, book and all smack into this dirty water! I see a need there: there must be another way to get people safely across this water. Can we have a 'canoe service?' I look at those cool babes who have no cars and have to walk through puddles of water with their shoes in their hands! (ouch, I know exactly how demeaning and embarrassing that feels). How about the risk of infection from the water?? So I am thinking, is there a way we can produce lovely, transparent, bright, and colourful boots for ladies? Something they would be proud to don and not feel embarrassed in? I don’t care if anyone steals this idea, but this is a solution to a need! If necessary, start a Boot Rental Service for areas where people only have to cross from the junction to their homes! I do not know what the finer details will be (i.e how the boots gets returned etc) but those are things to think through, #JustStartFirst!

Tayo had dreams, he had money and he had purpose; he 'showed up for life' He did not, in his own way, 'deny the world of his contribution' (thank God for GTB!). I am grateful to him for inspiring me to think about my dreams again. I hope you would think about yours, dust them up (where necessary) and #StartSomething.

May he (finally, after all the pain), rest in peace.

Be free oh and “don’t deny the world of your contribution. Give it what you’ve got.”