I saw a rainbow this morning and it made me smile. I had been mulling over thoughts of how this week would be in my usual monday morning sobriety and as such something as "little" as a rainbow peeking behind the clouds was enough to gladen my heart.The beginning of the week for me is usually a time of sober contemplation. What to achieve, where to go, who would I run into? what did I have planned... in the course of the week is usually paramount in my mind. Most times I'm looking forward to whatever it is I had pushed from the previous week. Hence, monday mornings have this aura of purpose around them. There is a drive, a solem-ness( is there a word like that??) that sorrounds you on a monday morning.
This drive, comes from sunday night when you have to start picking out what to wear for the week, what is appropriate for what day and what is not! Then you fall into a fitful sleep, not sure you actually want the weekend to end but knowing inevitably that at the crack of dawn you need to get up and go!In Lagos, monday mornings are charaterized with heavi-er traffic than normal. There is usually the traffic jam of rush hour on every other day but monday morning just crowns it.It's even worse on days when it has rained through out the weekend and you have to swim through the puddles in the roads. The deep craters on the highways make it more diffcult for motorists to move smoothly.So, your week actually begins with you muttering on the failures of the government and the frustrations of living within a system where nothing works. Maybe for some people, it does not happen that way, but for me... my monday mornings are usually dreary!! I have to make a conscious effort to find something, anything, to make me chirpy, so when I see a little end of a rainbow, peeking from behind the clouds, it makes me smile. I rememeber that God is up there looking at me and saying, " dont worry sweetness, I AM here ALL the time, and I make all things beautiful. Even dreary mondays!!!"
Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
At Rephidim
There is a Bible story that gets me every time I hear it and it goes thus: So some time many many years ago when the children of Isreal went to battle with the Amalekites ( forgive my need to give a background story)...anyway so the battle/war went on and on and the God says to Moses to hold out the staff in his arms and as long as he does that, the Isrealites will prevail. Now if you ask me, that's a tricky one because I'm thinking, Wow.. his arms will hurt but then Aaron is standing by, so they come up with this brilliant plan that Aaron holds up Moses's hands through out the time. and offcourse... God's promise comes to pass, so the Isrealites win... YAY!!!! You think right?? good! So let's look at all the glory and fame Moses would have gotten. Let's try and imagine some praise singers and all that giving glory to God and also saying a big big thank you to Moses for his stamina and the strength in his muscles. Right!!!
12 Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. 13 As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.
Every succesful leader in this world has an Aaron somewhere, supporting him and encouraging him, helping him/ her to maximise their potential.
I believe the real heroes in this story are Hur and Aaron. They are like the pillar the support needed.
Every human being is frail and as such needs another to go on. No one can claim to be all knowing and can do all. No matter how much of a star you are, you will at one point in time or the other need some support and it is this support that is the crux of my blog.
12 Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. 13 As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.
Every succesful leader in this world has an Aaron somewhere, supporting him and encouraging him, helping him/ her to maximise their potential.
I believe the real heroes in this story are Hur and Aaron. They are like the pillar the support needed.
Every human being is frail and as such needs another to go on. No one can claim to be all knowing and can do all. No matter how much of a star you are, you will at one point in time or the other need some support and it is this support that is the crux of my blog.
We need each other.
Many atimes we feel we are being relegated top the side, maybe at our jobs or in our homes or even among peers which we feel shoul not be so. Maybe it's one of those situations where you feel you have not really done much but mop the brow of another person or get another person a glass of water, but you see, it's those little things that make the big picture
Without you, there would be no real success. I'm sure many rememeber how Moses was able to prevail at Rephidim but would he in his human frailty been able to do it without Aaron??
So if sometimes you feel you are not recognized sufficiently for what you do? if you dont see yourself as a major player? always remember that without your support the team would not be complete.
Don't feel bad...you are perfectly positioned.Just like Aaron was, at Rephidim.
Many atimes we feel we are being relegated top the side, maybe at our jobs or in our homes or even among peers which we feel shoul not be so. Maybe it's one of those situations where you feel you have not really done much but mop the brow of another person or get another person a glass of water, but you see, it's those little things that make the big picture
Without you, there would be no real success. I'm sure many rememeber how Moses was able to prevail at Rephidim but would he in his human frailty been able to do it without Aaron??
So if sometimes you feel you are not recognized sufficiently for what you do? if you dont see yourself as a major player? always remember that without your support the team would not be complete.
Don't feel bad...you are perfectly positioned.Just like Aaron was, at Rephidim.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Red
Something happens to me whenever I have a glass of red wine in my hand, I can not exactly place a finger to it and I can not aptly describe the feeling but it can best be described as " happiness" I hold on firmly to the stem as i swirl the contents in the glass, musing on life and on events around me. I have a clearer picture of things when I am in this mood, and like i said, i feel Happy!
But what does happiness entail really? happiness is something that eludes most of us as human beings. This is mainly because human beings by nature are not content with one thing and as such we end up chasing so many things at once (dreams) and never really getting the much elusive happiness... well except when you are slightly intoxicated like me.
The glass of red means alot to me, it calms me down, say for instance when I am nervous, i find some form of comfort.When I'm also too happy, I help myself to a glass, or two, depending on the happiness on a scale of 1 to 10. I guess this is how alcoholics feel in the early days, how they justify the need to slosh... or then,maybe not.!
I rememeber saving a bottle for celebrating the end of my Bar finals and I had kept the bottle for almost 6 months, with a plan to open and drink it all up with a friend of mine. Alas, on the last day of the exam while I was in the room waiting for my friend to come, she was somewhere so far away enjoying the bonfire night the student council had organised. So while waiting for her to return i started with the first glass, slipping as slowly as possible so that she could meet me at it. 3 hours later and there was no Boma, and the bottle was empty. I had finished a whole bottle of Red on my own. Ahh... even me i surprised myself! I ended up falling into deep deep sleep. Partly caused by the alcohol and partly because I had been sleep deprived for months, I had been running on auto pilot for months and I felt I needed to unwind.
But, I woke up and was terribly sick, gone was the ephemeral feeling of happiness. I had been thrilled and now here I was soaked in my own puke! ( I guess I must have over done it that day, or maybe I have a really low threshold for alcohol consumption) but my point is this, I took solace in something and I overdid it and the end result was not good at all.
Many times we have things which we turn to for comfort, something that takes us to our happy place, but then we end up over-doing it and we get the exact opposite of happiness.
So maybe moderation IS the key because, totally depending one one thing, one person, or one place as the source of your happiness will definately bring you unhappiness. (Ofcourse you all know God is the exception to this postulation of mine dont you?)
So I'm thinking, all this talk of red wine is leaving me with a craving... Cant wait to have my next glass off course in moderation, because I have learnt my lesson!
But what does happiness entail really? happiness is something that eludes most of us as human beings. This is mainly because human beings by nature are not content with one thing and as such we end up chasing so many things at once (dreams) and never really getting the much elusive happiness... well except when you are slightly intoxicated like me.
The glass of red means alot to me, it calms me down, say for instance when I am nervous, i find some form of comfort.When I'm also too happy, I help myself to a glass, or two, depending on the happiness on a scale of 1 to 10. I guess this is how alcoholics feel in the early days, how they justify the need to slosh... or then,maybe not.!
I rememeber saving a bottle for celebrating the end of my Bar finals and I had kept the bottle for almost 6 months, with a plan to open and drink it all up with a friend of mine. Alas, on the last day of the exam while I was in the room waiting for my friend to come, she was somewhere so far away enjoying the bonfire night the student council had organised. So while waiting for her to return i started with the first glass, slipping as slowly as possible so that she could meet me at it. 3 hours later and there was no Boma, and the bottle was empty. I had finished a whole bottle of Red on my own. Ahh... even me i surprised myself! I ended up falling into deep deep sleep. Partly caused by the alcohol and partly because I had been sleep deprived for months, I had been running on auto pilot for months and I felt I needed to unwind.
But, I woke up and was terribly sick, gone was the ephemeral feeling of happiness. I had been thrilled and now here I was soaked in my own puke! ( I guess I must have over done it that day, or maybe I have a really low threshold for alcohol consumption) but my point is this, I took solace in something and I overdid it and the end result was not good at all.
Many times we have things which we turn to for comfort, something that takes us to our happy place, but then we end up over-doing it and we get the exact opposite of happiness.
So maybe moderation IS the key because, totally depending one one thing, one person, or one place as the source of your happiness will definately bring you unhappiness. (Ofcourse you all know God is the exception to this postulation of mine dont you?)
So I'm thinking, all this talk of red wine is leaving me with a craving... Cant wait to have my next glass off course in moderation, because I have learnt my lesson!
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