Serendipity: I Am 'Brave'

With the way the world is going, I am deeply reconsidering having another child. The world scares me so much now, I wonder how it will be in the coming years.

What values will the children be exposed to? What will become of marriage? Will there still be sane / straight people walking our streets? 

I usually don't do this but I found this post to be an interesting read.

Serendipity: I Am 'Brave': I never gave much thought to the whole brouhaha surrounding Bruce Jenner’s evolution into Caitlyn, I had lumped it into the category of one...

The Dream

I picked up my phone and decided to break the jinx. Having had a writer's block for a while now, I know it's time to break it. Life changing events sometimes causes us to loose interest in the things we love... oh well, here goes!!!

Struggling with myself; my legs barely carrying my weight, I realized I may have overdone this one. Gaining a lot of weight doesn't just affect ones physical wellness but also the psychological  and emotional well-being. 

Looking in the mirror was horrifying, I mean where did my flat tummy go? How come I was spotting some dark stretchmarks on my hips?! Was this even normal? Everyone looked at me now, walking into my office never felt more nerve-wracking. Now I understand how fat Albert must have felt.

Speaking with my therapist, I expressed with much pain in voice how upsetting the changes in my body were, how 'beautyless' I felt... He jolted me back to reality. "You are pregnant" he said, these changes are normal.

I woke up panting, covered in sweat. The room was really dark, thank God it was only a dream.
 Or was it? 

BRUISED

It hurts! It really hurts!! I couldn’t remember being hit from our fight but somehow I had the worst body ache ever! My elbows were sore, my right cheek felt warm, my head was banging, and my eyes were burning.

Everything hurts.

As I lay in bed, I tried to cast my mind back to the night before? What happened? The evening had seemed so perfect; dinner was amazing. I remember the candles, the beautiful rose petals, the soft music, the wine, his soft fingers stroking me… it was perfect. He was such a romantic man regardless of our issues. His subtle brown eyes made me melt each time he looked at me; he was supposed to be the one, everyone said so.   

Nothing makes sense at this moment. I feel like I had been to Heaven but suddenly dropped thousands of miles down to Earth... It really hurts.

Flashes of him smacking me filled my mind… did this really happen? I tried to move, my waist had a mind of its own… it didn’t respond. A sharp pain shot up my back, jolting my memory. 

The night was planned to be perfect… six months of pain and joy, laughter and tears, pleasure and hurt. It was a roller-coaster! an adventure of my mind, my body and my soul. 

He had hit me many times before but none compares to this! Surely this man was destined to be my karma, for my many sins of fornication and rebellion.

I reached out to feel his side of the bed, nothing. I felt nothing too…this was God’s plan for me, I believed it was. He had sent me here to be disciplined, to learn the art of submission, to live the life of a virtuous woman – somehow I think I’d be dead before these lessons pay off.

Photo Courtesy of: http://mattemax.deviantart.com/gallery/ 

 

WHISPERS!!!

Have you had moments where your head whispers something to you but your heart agrees with the exact opposite?

Below is the experience of one of the most talented/creative/girly writers I know. 

Enjoy!

Yes! She gave me an opportunity to do this…a time to share what whispered to me…Now how am I going to talk, whisper to you…? Stop! Shut up!! Just Stop! No! I’m going to talk back to you… Shhh! I’ve to ‘whisper’ what you ‘whispered’ to the ‘whisperer’

When I look back at that day, I wonder how I could have done that! So daft silly of me! Geezzzz!!! It was a long and hectic Friday at work and all I just wanted to do when I get home, was throw my bag on the floor and dive roll on that bed of mine. Just as I stepped out of the office building, singing happily in my head, my phone ‘Pung’ so many times. Well, curious to know who won’t allow me breathe this free fresh air I just inhaled, I scrolled to the message, lo and behold it was my close friend ‘goatie’ *That’s what I call her* She was actually buzzing trying to remind me that she was on her way to my house.

Choi! Today is today *Pardon my English* Look at me that was dreaming of sleeping away the whole night, with my pillow as DJ Skillz. It’s not that I wasn’t looking forward to seeing my goatie, but mhen, that’s loads of never-ending gist, giggles and you know…to catch up on *Yea I know, you’ll shake your head and say girls can gossip talk! Who cares?*

On getting home, she was already at the gate waiting for me! From our walk into the house till like nine pm, the gist had started in full swing. Only for her to tell me that we had a hang-out that night! *Oh someone help me! What?! My sleep!!!* I tried to convince my stubborn ‘goatie’ that I won’t go since I was extremely tired but she won’t hear any of that! Lest, I forget, she knows how to persuade people like a policeman collects bribe.

After agreeing to the Friday night gig and allowing me be boring while we were out, we got dressed and hopped into our her friend’s ride who was with his own friend. I tried to be nice, until my ‘goatie’ sent me a message to my BBM, *Yea! You know, we didn’t want them to hear Us* that she just met our  her so called friends this morning when he gave her a lift to her office bus-stop, that he was really nice. Gosh! I felt like giving her a hard knock, *How could she do that?* only for the dude to jolt me back to the present scene and say:

MR. ANONYNMOUS:  Sorry ladies! Hope you don’t mind if we stop at my house so I could pick up some more cash and change my clothes?

My friend murmured back a reply as we both exchanged glances

GOATIE:  Ernnn! Ok

All of a sudden the speed of the car increased as I kept wondering if the ‘OK’ had made this guy, whose name I never got to know roar. I kept looking out of the window for familiar landmarks as I realized we were already driving into Magodo. Only for our her dear friend to turn the car to a darkly lit road, my heartbeat started pounding, ‘invisible yam’ before I knew what was happening, he was driving into a kind of uncompleted fence hiding a house that revealed some rugged guys smoking in chain circles.

Before we could even get a full view of what lay inside that building my friend goatie and I opened the still moving car door, jumped and ran out for our dear lives. Like we both had the same thought flash through our minds, the same voice whisper to us, we ran like a mad man was on our heels, like we were in a race and we had reached the finish line but just couldn’t stop running.

We found ourselves at the bus-stop and tried to catch our breaths as I figured out what next to do…Not like we even had enough money to take us home at eleven thirty pm. With shaking hands, I scrolled through the numbers on my phone as ‘goatie’ was still looking around us in fear and dialed a trusted friend who lives in Magodo *Ehen! I know you’ll say more trouble* who said he *Yes! He!!!* will be with us shortly.

In less than thirty minutes, ‘Superman’ came to our rescue and whisked us off to his house. Despite his look at the two of us in our skimpy dresses, he never asked any questions *Phew!* and I don’t think I will have given him a truthful answer either. I could hardly sleep that morning but kept slapping myself for not listening to my instinct ‘whisperer’.  As for ‘goatie’, I had no words for her but I really don’t want to question the ’What-if’ but simply go on my knees and thank God.

Over time, through life’s journey we go through times where we may not want to do something and our INSTINCT whispers to us with all sincerity, please listen to IT because that could always be the truth talking to you. Sometimes you don’t have to question it because it’s you talking to YOU!

Before I take a humble bow, thanks to Mo for giving me a chance to share my experience. *Muah!* You all, have a fab week and if the whisperer whispers to YOU, sure do the right thing!

*Flips hair and walks away dragging ‘MY WHISPERER’

MY SMILE

I am really excited to share this story with you. It is very recent with snippets of this morning’s drive embedded! 

It is the tale of my SMILE J.

So for a while now I have driven this really flashy (yellow) car all around Lagos with the plate number SMILE J. Oh Lawd! I got too much attention from everyone from the Yellow fever guys screaming ‘SMILE!’ to the Okada (Bike) riders saying ‘sister SMILE Jna’ to young guys trying to be sharp – I do not understand why they all think that can start off a conversation in traffic! Anyway, let’s just say I have made quite an impression over the past months. 

Frankly in the beginning it felt nice getting to the office and having practically over twenty security guys calling me SMILEJ, having bus drivers say ‘SMILE for Jesus’, having the police stop me only to scream SMILEJ! Chai! it got a bit too much o. It is really funny the impact such a little item can cause. 

I used to see Lagosians differently… I mean, we were all angry drivers hustling to get somewhere but having people (both literate and illiterate)  take time out of their ‘hustle waka’ to grin wide and smile really changed my perspective. Truly, everyone just wants to be happy isn’t it? ‘In pursuit of Happiness right?' Amidst the economy, the scorching sun, the chaos of Lagos roads… it really got me.

Anyway, I recently changed my plate number - an Olori (Queen) doesn’t need that kinda attention as I have way too much of that already hehe! But yes, I took that bold step and got it changed and you know what? No one wants to forget my SMILEJ! On my way to work this morning, I saw a police man who to took time out  to yell ‘SMILEJ’ once he saw my car! Of course I put on my best smile and wove back! Why am I excited? I had made an imprint on him! The same thing happened with two random (I do not know them AT ALL) guys very close to my office… one actually said ‘my smile’ I’m like ‘WHAT th*&*%^?! while the other dude noticed and shouted ‘smile kilode?! I know that all the security guys will still call me that beautiful word SMILE!

Why am I sharing this? Experiencing this has taught me that little things really do go a long way. Do not wait for the perfect moment, the perfect gift or the perfect person, just go ahead and make someone happy and...