One Week in August
Posted on 10. Oct, 2009 by Lounge Lady in Excerpts From My Journal
One Week in August;
The week that I started by reading page 125 of Max Lucado’s Next Door Savior as my daily devotional. It posed the question of where God is in the midst of the storms and depressingly left me with an inspiration from the story shared at a certain Silecchia’s funeral; she was recently married and had an eighteen-month old baby.
The week that I stumbled on ‘the woman issue’, an old edition of Farafina Magazine and out of the many beautifully written pieces by some of the finest writers around here, “For the love of Anthony” jumped out at me. It’s the memoir of a grieving woman who lost a promising son in the 2005 London bombings.
The week that I got a depressing and dreadful call from my mother, Mr. Adeniyi, a family friend and my father’s former collegeaue had died from complications of surgery; his identical twins girls were my younger sister’s best friends in high school.
The week that I saw an announcement and a white donation box at the entrance of my Estate. Festus, the head of the estate security who had a fierce argument with my friends some days ago had died after a brief illness.
The week that I felt great pain in my heart as Pastor Eastwood shared with us how life has not been the same after he lost of his two adorable children on the same day in the same accident.
The week that I had visited one of my favorite gossip blogs in hope of reading the hottest gist in town but instead got the horrific news of the passing away of one of my favorite actresses, she lost the battle with lung cancer.
The week that I flipped from one local TV station to another until I got hooked on the controversial Emmanuel TV’s charity day, and I shed tears as I saw many children who came for help, they were all orphans some blind, some cripple, some dumb , some mentally retarded.
That same week, I realized how ungrateful I have been for getting depressed and anxious because of my need for bigger, flashier, prettier and more expensive things.
I made a stop to my search for antidepressants for my incessant mood swings and low spirits, and made a solemn vow, to take a pause and enjoy life, to step back in order to see clearly, to love others with all my might. To enjoy where I am, on the way to where I am going.
The same week I started my iGiveThanks Journal
Writer – Shola Okubote
What's Age Got To Do With IT?
Posted on 27. Aug, 2009 by Lounge Lady in Excerpts From My Journal
When Martha’s husband broke her heart, she put her life on a hold and spent years wallowing and convincing her she needn’t try to get on her feet again. So she grew into an obese, depressed, agoraphobic and indifferent mid aged woman living in serious debts.
She didn’t realize how much her life sucked until a passerby dropped a coin in her cup of soda thinking she was a destitute. That was the dot connecting moment that made her lose tens of pounds in weight, threw her on the good sides of the stock market, dragged her to the clubs and hang outs with friends, changed her wardrobe, and got her dating again. In three years she made a complete 180 degrees turn, she pursued, overtook and recovered the seemingly lost years of her life.
Her transformation somehow lit up a bulb in my head, and there was this burst of understanding, like never before I believe that some changes are actually possible at any age, if we are willing to give it all it takes!
Influenced by the fairy tales we hear as children, and what we see on television and hear every day, we develop stereotypes about age and achievement. We use age as a yardstick to measure and judge what others should have attained, so if they haven’t done something at a particular age we think they are failures.
Because of our frozen understanding about the subject, we say a virgin at 23 must be a freak, an unemployed at 27 surely lacks focus, a single lady at 30 definitely has an attitude problem, and we tell the pregnant at 37 they are late bloomers, and if you are not at the peak of your career at 40, you are a fool forever!
The truth is life happens for us in different ways and at different times, and while we work hard towards achieving our life goals without leaving any stone untouched we must understand that the times and seasons of life does not necessarily have to do with age.
When I was younger I never had problems with telling people my age, because I thought my achievement measured up pretty well, but after few years of paddling so hard to stay floating on life’s stormy sail, it stopped being one of the questions I answer with great excitement. So every birthday comes with soberness and introspection, of what should, could or would have been. And my heart faints when I hear news like; Rihanna got a Grammy at 20, and Mark Zuckerberg (the Facebook founder) is only 24 year old!
But as I add another year today, I am choosing to have an enough time to conquer the world attitude with gratitude. To stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles, I chose to enjoy every step of the journey, to make the most of all my resources no matter how seemingly insignificant, without holding back all I can give, do or be, everywhere, anytime and at any age!
Happy Birthday to Me, Myself, Moi and I!
