LONELY ROAD

I spoke to mama later in the day. She apologized. She said she was upset. I agree she must have been upset. Anyone in her position would be a victim of high blood pressure but she managed to keep her mind and acts together without fatal health issues.

I still wasn’t happy that she took out her frustration on me but it gave me a peek into her mind. I just couldn’t blame her. Life had played her an unfair card.

***

“You all are wasting my time. I want to leave here now,” daddy called from the entrance door.
“We are done sweet,” mama responded.

We were seated in the car 10 minutes later – I, mama, Ola (my cousin who lived with us), and Nma (my cousin who was visiting for a couple of weeks) – everyone but daddy who emerged from the house 10 minutes after we were all seated.

“You had something to do in the house but you kept hurrying us as if we were the only ones keeping this movement,” mama said.
“I’m sorry I had to use the toilet,” daddy answered.

We observed the highway was almost deserted. It appeared there was a travel restriction that only us and a few others didn’t hear about.

“Even the trailer drivers heard. None has passed us today,” Ola observed.
“We’ll probably get to the toll-gate and we all will be impounded for illegal traveling,” mama said and we all laughed.
“You still have toll-gate in this state?” Nma asked looking surprised.
“Oh! My bad. I forgot there are no more toll-gates in Nigeria,” mama said.
“Yeah. You’re probably thinking of the crayfish you left in the kitchen at home,” I said.
“Where did you put our room’s key?” Daddy interjected.

Mama began to search her bag frantically. Daddy noticed her fussy search and began to slow down. I was praying and shaking.
“Not today, Lord, not today,” I prayed.

But my prayers seemed late. The fun and freedom in the car had disappeared.
“Keep driving, sweet, I’ll find the keys,” mama said to daddy.
“Stupid woman!” daddy flared. “You’re so careless, I don’t even know why I married you. What if you left that key outside? What if someone finds it and takes it?”
“Sweet, if you saw the keys and picked them just let me know. There’s no need for all these insults.”
“Better find that bunch before I descend on you.”
“That’s enough daddy,” I cut in. “There’s no need for all these abusive words.”
“I knew you’d support her. You never see wrong. You’re just like your mother – Stupid!”
“I’m not stupid. There’s just no need for all these things you’re saying. If you have the key just get it out and ask her to be more careful.”
“If you don’t stop talking back at me, Adaora, I’ll drop you here.”
“That’s enough Ada m,” mama said.
“No mama! Stay out of this. He either stops insulting you or he drops me here. I’d rather walk back than listen to all these crap from him.”

Daddy stopped the car and asked me to come down from the car. I came down without hesitating and went for my bag in the trunk. I’m not sure he believed that I meant it but I was going to head back to where we were coming from. I reasoned that I’d stay in our neighbour’s house and that the road will be safe for me.
My cousins were terrified. Mama cried silently. But my mind was made up.

Nma came down from the car to intercede for me. While she pleaded, she asked me to apologize but I refused. I figured that he was the wrong person embarrassing his wife before his child and his nieces so he was the one who needed to cut his arrogance and apologize.
“Daddy, imagine a member of the church stops by and wants to find out why we are here?” Nma asked.
I don’t know if it was the question or a change of heart but we were on our way shortly after and daddy was trying to buy everything he could afford to appease mama.

SURVIVAL AGAINST IMPACT!

“Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?” Matt. 6:25 (AMP).

There is an inherent ability in man to do what is required in order to achieve the results that he desires. God has wired us in such a way that we are able to beat the odds when push comes to shove. We will do what it takes to survive.

I remember when I was a kid and some other mischievous kids sent a dog after me. I scaled a wall I never thought I could scale. This was possible because my survival potential aroused the adrenaline in me and I was able to do that.

This is the lot of so many people in the world today. Their lives are about surviving. This is why selfishness is on a great high. No one cares about the other, we all just want to survive, regardless of how that leaves the people around us.

I don’t mean to say that survival is a bad thing. However, survival is not the reason God made us, it is only a means to an end. We were created to live and show forth God’s glory.

When our focus is on what we would eat, the clothes we would wear or the kind of houses we would live in etc, we are merely surviving. Our lives are worth much more than those. Our lives are designed to make impact in our world.

We may not necessarily change the world, but we can make it a better place. All the things that we crave for have been designed to aid us in accomplishing our divine mandate of impact. The world most likely will not remember what you always had for breakfast, nor the number of cars you used, nor the apparels you graced functions with. You will only be remembered for the impact you made and the significant marks you left in the sands of time.

So, stop thinking of SURVIVING and start thinking of IMPACTING!

 

 

MANIFEST!

 

 

MADE FOR HIM (PROLOGUE)

He had it all at his beck and call, wielding great wealth, power and influence over his immediate minors. Howbeit, he lacked one striking thing, and the impact became even more glaring as his job became more tasking. However, he could not detect what it was. His immediate boss and Father couldn’t help but notice the vacuum and he set about searching for an instant solution, and voila…he got it, companionship.

All attempts at prescribing possible befitting comrades were like putting a square peg in a round hole. The beautifully displayed feathers of the peacock, the oratory of the parrot, the sonority of the nightingale, the wise counsel of the tortoise, the calculated steps of the jellyfish. All of these endowments were exciting to him but the feeling was transient. They seemed not to be the main draw. Their intelligence quotients were far below the bench-mark. Thus he felt complete and self-sufficient.

His Father needed to open him up and strip him of that “object of completeness” in order to make a look-alike of him in physique and reasoning. A man who thinks himself to be complete in all possible facets will soon notice a gap, of subtle but undeniable impact. And until that, which makes a man feel complete, self-productive and all-achieving is overwhelmed, he may never see the need for a companion to be effective in his heavenly task.

Stay tuned as God helps us to explore the personality and import of a companion.

Caught in the Middle

Dear Soul,
I hope you are good? If so, doxology.
Soul, I want to encourage you. I am writing to remind you that you are beautiful and blessed. You are a blessing to your generation. I want you never to be discouraged no matter what you face. I love you forever.
Yours Faithfully,
Adaora.
***

I searched frantically for this letter in my little purse that housed my valuables. I was going to shed a tear when I found the letter hidden in a little torn part of the purse. I unfolded it gently and read its contents again to reassure myself.
***
Mama and I usually sat on the sitting room sofa having a gist about nothing in particular whenever I came home from school. I loved to talk with mama, it was like relaxing with your best friend. We got all playful at times, throwing silly jokes at each other.
My favourite joke was when I said something rather stupid and she’d ask me “ahu odikwa gi?” (that is, “are you alright?”) Then she’ll ask me to come for examination. She’d raise her hand to check how hot my neck was and then she’ll swiftly move to my head to deposit a knock. Then I was always alert to spring away from her when her hand left my neck.
On this particular day, we were together when she asked me to sweep the sitting room. I hesitated, intending to do it at my own pace. I was totally unprepared for the words that followed next. Slowly, I got up from where I sat to carry out her instructions.
***
I sat down quietly in my room thinking through everything mama had said to me. She had blamed me for her marital predicament. They were words too heavy for me to bear.
Did I ask to be born? Did I choose my gender? Did I choose not to have siblings? Am I an evil child?
I must have slept off thinking because when I opened my eyes the sun had gone west and its golden-yellow beam filtered lightly through my curtains.
I got up from bed and began to search my purse for my letter. I needed some reassurance to get ahead with my life.

A LITTLE EXTRA SLEEP!

“But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber” Prov. 6:9-11 (NLT).

Health experts say that an adult require an average of 7 to 8 hours of sleep to stay healthy. When I sat down and did the math, I was alarmed. If we assume that adulthood starts at 20 and old age creeps in at 70, it means we have about 50 active years. If we sleep at this rate, we would have slept away about 16 active years.

Sincerely, I am not faulting this. However, I think that will work well with people who are satisfied with average and mediocre results.

One of the biggest decisions I’ve ever made in my life was to cut down on the hours I spend sleeping daily. This was because I wouldn’t just see myself making excuses for my inability to manifest the things God has put in me.

I work, I run my personal business with my clients and I still have to make out time to write and also read to be empowered. Realistically, it would be very difficult achieving these things on daily basis, sleeping 8 hours a day.

Now there’s a caveat: STAYING AWAKE FOR AN UNPRODUCTIVE BUSINESS IS WORSE THAN SLEEPING FOR 8 HOURS.

If you are like me that craves for supernormal results, then you need to cut down on the time you spend sleeping and channel it to productive business.

 

MANIFEST!

 

 

THE INEVITABLE PILL

If only the Creator would grant me the power to heal
Then the cheerless gates of misery, I would gladly seal
That fearless devourer armed with daily zeal
I could see the “die-hard” cringe for real

Forth would I go to the Omnipresent, whom I can seek
The Almighty, before whom the mighty are meek
Leaves many all cranky and up the creek
I couldn’t dare steal a careless peek

Wouldest I seal tis deathly deal?
Stripping off all of its bodily feel
Concealing a myriad of woes in piecemeal
Leaving us in wonder if it’s for real

Oh, that man couldst dread the inevitable pill
Resolute on populating hell to the gills
Whilst inflicting hearty pains as with a drill
The saintly host on high celebrates, more still

A drove of spirited souls, thou didst swallow
And have them landed in cheerless gallows
All we like sheep, unsteady as the marshmallows
Rotting pallor, having potentials lying fallow

Still, our roles to play in the entire gist
A Christ less life has got some nasty twists
Thus our willingness to settle in the Creator’s fist
A safe haven for all who must forever exist

 

 

 

Beyond Bounds

“Ada m, i lòla!” mama called out excitedly from the dining room, where she sat chatting with Nmesomachi, without getting up.

I just returned home from school for a three-day midterm break and I was excited to be home. (Did you attend a boarding school? Kai! The wahala nor be here ooo. I hated the most that mama had to be out of sight every now and again. Then those seniors that wouldn’t come with their personal “boyi” from their houses.)

 
I dropped my bags in the sitting room and walked briskly into mama’s embrace. “I am so happy to see you, mama m”, I replied in my high-pitched voice. “You have come back again with this your olu ogene. You must damage someone’s ears to send your message across,” Nmeso fired at me.

 
I sat on mama’s laps laughing. “Nmeso, I missed you o. I maka zi. You people are feeding fat in this house,” I teased her. “But wait! Instead of saying welcome and telling me you how much missed me, you are yabbing me? Don’t worry I’ll go back again.”
“Is going back a threat? Biko wait I want to hear better things. Or do you want to go back now?” Nmesoma responded giggling. “There is food in the pot if you’re hungry. We were talking before you came in.”

 
I went to the kitchen to help myself with a plate of jollof beans and then I rejoined them at the dining table.
“…that was when he grapped me and threw me on the cushion – that long cushion. I cried and begged him but he wasn’t listening to me. He was already undoing his belt when Emeka’s daddy knocked. I don’t know if he heard us, but his coming delivered me,” Nmeso finished.

 
“Are you planning a new movie? Who wan rape you for this world?” I asked curiously.
“My dear! Ada m, your father is on a new low. Nmeso is just telling me what happened here two Fridays ago, while I was at work,” mama said disenchanted.
“Okay, this is a joke right?” I said, unable to hide my disgust. “Nmeso this won’t happen again. I trust mama to make sure of that.”
“It won’t happen again Ada because I’m moving next week. I already made arrangements with my course mates in town,” Nmeso replied. “I don’t want to create such chance again. I won’t tell my father, as I had intended. Rather, I will go”, she concluded.

 
I didn’t argue because I understood her need for safety. I just wondered why mama had to be the one cleaning up these messes. I wondered what good marriage served, especially for women.

THE DEMAND

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me” Matt. 16:24 (NLT).

A lot of people have asked me to mentor them in the area of inspirational and motivational writing, and most often that not, those requests gets broken down after the first hang out. By the time I begin to share the price I had to pay to get to where I am and the ones I’m willing to pay to get better, it scares most of them away.

Unfortunately, I don’t really do well in sugar-coating issues. The few times I’ve tried, it didn’t pan out well.

One of the things that anyone who aspires great and excellent results should have at the back of his mind is that EXCELLENCE PLACES A DEMAND ON YOU! There’s no going around it, you have a price to pay to be excellent at what you do.

One of the demands that excellence places on you is SELF DENIAL.

Truth is, nothing of great worth comes on a platter of gold. For Jesus to attain the level of glory that He is operating at now, He had to pay the price. He denied Himself a lot to purchase the salvation that we enjoy today.

What height do you wish to attain? What kind of results do you anticipate in your career, business, academics, marriage, ministry, etc? They are attainable. Howbeit, they come at a price. Know and understand the demand it places on you and give it all it takes.

MANIFEST!