Life: Storm and Calm

Good morning, I have been away fro here for a while. life has thrown it curves at us, but we are here. We have had good and bad news but we are here, we have lost loved ones, dear friends, spouse but we are here. wars are raging but here we are. 

It all looks like life is just hurtling on ignoring our continuous attempts at slowing it down. But this is life, we make the best of all we encounter, lending each other a helping hand, pulling up the falling, consoling the bereaved, offering our shoulders to the weary and sad. speaking words of comfort to those who are in pains, offering our silent company to those mourning and rejoicing with those that rejoice. 

This is life we live it to the fullest not deterred by the challenges, taking on new adventures with zest.

This is life with all its shades and curves, a canvass painting with dark and bright spots, it only makes the picture more complete and beautiful. Wake up to the cloudy weepy sky, to the white flakes resting gently on the tips of our nose or to the sun blazing in all its glory making us break out in sweat. It is all part of life, we seek to be better, nature is here to accompany us and remind us of God's unending faithfulness, how the birds of the air neither sow nor reap to store in bans but are fed from one season to the other. The beautiful flowers of the field clothed in all it's beauty, here in one moment but is gone the next.

This Life! we make the best of it before we draw our last breath.

WEARY

Leave me he said
My soul is weary
I shall not lie, it's dreary
Far from the Preying eyes
Let the sun smite
Let it drain my might
For in me is no light
For the journey seems not right
For the days are long
The night tempestuous at best
I wait no longer the morning
For it lurks, refusing to break forth

No Time to Waste

In a Hurry by @greatise

Lagos is harsh, always in a hurry, each time I come to Lagos it reminds me of this. Passengers sleeping in buses trying to catch lost sleep. Bus conductors screaming with their hoarse voices, while you barely hear what they say. The names of bus stops have become abbreviated so much you need to be familiar with the newly contrived name. Daylight barely breaks before the cacophony of sound shatters the quiet and continues till early hours of the next Day.  Lagos barely sleeps, it's perpetually in motion, always in a hurry to reach its destination. The inhabitants are infected with its fast pace. No leisure walking on its street, feet barely touching the ground before it leaps into the air again, no time to commune with the ground, no time to caress it and allow it feel it's presence. Lagos stands as an enigma a large mural work with the bright and dark sides in a hurry to pass it's message across, No time to waste!

Mum's Cooking

The very first time I traveled out of Nigeria I was married with a child, long before that I had traveled to several places, though not physically but I traveled to other lands nevertheless. Actually my first journey physically leaving the shores of Nigeria was when I crossed into Cotonou to buy my first car, but I digress again. I want to tell you the story of travelling through the cooking of my mum. Her kitchen was our airport, the dishes she churned out was the landing port in whichever country we went.

Liberia Road Accra Ghana with Total House in the background

She opened up our palates at an early age to varying dishes, as long as it was called food and eaten by people and she learnt it, we ate it when she cooked it. Grew up drinking kunu long before I knew which part of Nigeria it came from, yes I finally knew it was from the northern part of my dear country. So soothing when the sun is high up blazing hot and the ground seeks water to quench its thirst. Kunu did magic, refreshing and filling. Koko was a bit difficult for me to adapt to but plenty sugar did the trick, please no questions I told you I have a son already! She took us on a flight to Ghana, banku with groundnut soup was the flight we boarded, Saturday morning was specifically earmarked for Banku, my people the bottom pot was the sweetest! That burnt part that is crispy!! Oh! Wait have you tasted banku with a little of fufu mixed into it? Kai the smoothness, add a little okro to the groundnut soup, heavenly. Donkunu is one food I do not understand why they eat it with such peppery stew, no one answered that question, then I discovered groundnut soup was a col accompaniment for it and the puzzle was unraveled for me, none of that pepper that makes you whistle continuously and seek cold water to appease it while it takes up the room in your stomach meant for the Donkunu.

I traveled far and wide through my mum’s cooking, she made me realize that we are interwoven and there is no reason to look down on anyone irrespective of his or her tribe, tongue or race. She thought me, we have something to learn from each other. God bless Mojirade Theresa omo (daughter of) Adeyemi aya (wife of) Oyedeji.

IT ENDS TOMORROW

I have been away from this blog for a long while and it’s been quite an age I penned a poem. Below is one I wrote today. Let us make the most of life. It’s a gift and it is all we have got to make the world a better place. Enjoy, drop a comment I will appreciate it.

Oyedeji Aderemi 

IT ENDS TOMORROW

Times of fright

(c) @greatise

Worries and fear

Twist and turns

Hand of fate

Future so bright

Present so gloomy

Past best forgotten

Memories linger on

The breath we breathe

The words we speak

The time Spent

The duties shirked

The frightful dreams

The powerful thoughts

Unmatched

Strange bed fellows

This is life

It ends tomorrow
@Greatise

Low, High

This is the lowest I have felt in years. It seems everything is in slow motion, each day simple walking into the other, I am tired I think. I tell myself maybe a break is all I need, just a moment out of this routine that has become a life. It is almost as if I am stagnating. Reading has become an arduous task. Music keeps me company daily, my brain simply lets go at the sound of the music floating from my speakers. It’s a slow life, short one yet the days come too quickly for one to lay adequate grasp of it. It seems it will soon end, everything will stand still! A hand unseen, will press the pause button, just to review the present situation and make additional manoeuvres or changes to favour some and put some in dire strait. It is life, that’s what we call it, that is what it simply is, LIFE, a four letter word inundating to most people. We come and go, we simply disappear like the smoke from the fire, into thin air. No trace of the path we traveled left behind, soon the people who sang our praise simply move on to another one, where their bread will be buttered. It is as simple as that, quickly forgotten, as long as your life as not made another one better.

Life is short, very short, the pursuit of money, comfort and that which the heart desires to the detriment of our health, makes me wonder which is more important? It’s all vanity, says the wise one. Vanity upon vanity, so live each day free of scuffles and anger, do the best you can and know that at your death the work will continue.

The world is in a continuous loop, never taking a pause to mourn the dead or the dying. It’s simply the ones affected that will bury their dead and soon they continue their life. The death of the dying becomes memories to be remembered at such a time when they will need the help of the dead, if he/she was alive. Such is life deal with it.

Remember you are not all in all, you are nothing but a mere mortal who needs the help of fellow humans so, spread the love, lend a helping hand, a hug or smile could help that lone soul through trying times.

The inexplicable joy of putting a smile on the face of my patient is worth it all, the reason I wake up daily to walk into this consulting room not caring the unending bottlenecks I have to fight to give my patient the minimum obtainable care.

So life is worth living only if you have discovered the joy of making someone -random someone- happy every day, just to make the world a better place.

Thank You My Friends

Today I was going through my friend list on Facebook and I came across the name of a classmate of mine back in primary school Tunde Brown, I was about sending him a message when I read through his time line only to discover he died last year, May His soul rest in peace. So this a piece trying to say thank you to friends I have made over the years I have spent on earth, some of whom I have not spoken to or seen in decades. This is dedicated to you all from Sherryville Junior School, Ogba Grammar School, Effective coaching centre, St. Theresa Catholic Church Ifako, Obafemi Awolowo University, and to friends I have made on twitter and everyone out there whom we have met and spent days together.

Looking back over the years I have spent on earth, I have come to realize friends are treasures to keep. They come into your life and leave indelible marks, difficult to overlook or ignore as the months rolls into years, as night becomes day and days gradually give way to night. They became family, counsellors and confidants. Friends who have become brothers, sisters, aunties and uncles. So this is me saying thank you to all my friends, right from my nursery school days, they who made me comfortable and welcomed when I felt like fish out of water; willingly shared their snack with me when my food was thrown into the bin!

Back in primary school (Estate Primary School), I met these great guys who went hunting with me for grasshoppers during the lunch break, we shared our porridge and whatever our money could buy and that coloured sugary water that we called ice cream, we saved our lunch money to buy on our way home! Ekana Gowon, baba dudu and sausage, the cold pito we relished inside the hot sun while walking home.  To many faces and names I cannot remember today, but the days we spent together I have not forgotten. My classmates back in Sherryville when I returned there after a brief stint in a public primary school, Wale, Bukky, Femi, Biola, Tosin and many more to list. Those days when we were interacting we never knew the impact we were having on each other life, today years down the line I remember lessons I learnt from you all, from how to treat a lady (lol) to standing up for myself against bullies.  I am grateful. There was this incident I slid a metal ring unto my finger and I was unable to remove it, I panicked and my cousin came to my rescue, but that finger was bruised kai! I was spanked for getting a metal ring stuck on my finger. Back in secondary school, my first days were interesting. I won’t forget Bukky, she took me around and helped me establish a footing in the school. From learning which part of the school to go fetch my desk that will be carried away whenever it rained, where to buy food during break time and which part of the school to dodge lest I be bullied by the seniors ( thank God I did not attend a boarding school). Friends who gave me their notes to copy, who took their time out to teach me what they had learnt while I was not around. Friends who we walked home together after close of school on a daily basis (Kingsley, Taofeek, Mustapha and Femi). The friends I made in Ablaze for God youth Army, the list is endless but I am glad I met you all, you left me with memories I will forever cherish. Thanks to the Efere family, you guys thought me a lot! The trust your parents expressed in you guys was heart-warming, God bless your mum won’t forget her in a hurry. Happy memories are made when you have friends who accept you with open arms and never stop trying to put a smile on your face. Bernard Oyoyo I wish today I took up the challenge to learn a musical instrument during those days. Thank you room 141 faj guys, you made me appreciate music at another level entirely, Seyi and Bass lines in songs!

Thank you thank you Great Ife Guys, you all too numerous to mention, my classmates (OAU Med school class of 2007) who took time out to watch my back and care for me, I am eternally grateful. I am forever glad to see you guys anytime I have the opportunity. My life is a tapestry of the inputs each and every one of you have had over the course of my life. I have become what I have become because you guys decided to share your life with me. To the friends who have departed this world to the great beyond, my gratitude goes to you. Funke Adegbesan Nee Elusogbon, I cannot forget your friendship, it shaped my life in no small measure. And the friends I have made on twitter, you guys rock!!! I am blessed because I have friends who care, wish I would be a better friend to you all, and wish we will never grow apart with the years, alas we have to, that we may give our friendship to someone out there who needs it.

“True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a deserted island…to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing”- Unknown

“Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives and remembering what one receives.”- Alexander Dumas

“Friendship is the hardest thing I the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”- Muhammad Ali

Finally, “Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I am glad for that.” Ally Condie