Earned

When I started a new job 30 months ago, there was a need to get a big bag that could carry my laptop and several other things. I looked around the house and found a branded bag my husband had brought home from one of the several MCPD’s he has been attending since he became a Certified Accountant with the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN).

MCPD is a Mandatory Continuing Professional Development program, and as stated, it is mandatory for every member of the professional body. A member must attend one every year.

I remember using that bag for less than one month because I felt like an imposter. Maybe if I wasn’t an accountant, I may have not been so bothered…but I remember dropping the bag and getting a brand new one when I got more than two ‘congratulations’ from my colleagues. They had assumed I was Certified by ANAN because I was carrying the bag. Plus, I hated having to explain.

Today, I sip my coffee from a mug I earned after a paper presentation on ‘National Development Plan and the Role of the Professional Accountant’ at my induction into the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN).

Where’s that bag now? I think I should go find it and use it again for a while. I’m certified.

I make amazing coffee, who would believe it just black with about ¼ cup of lemon? The trick is in the way you introduce the heat to the lemon and coffee mix.

Whiskey and you

I’ve always felt a tad emotional whenever I hear the song ‘Whiskey and You’ by Chris Stapleton.

But today… I heard the guitar strings strum…and I knew in an instant. 

I felt it immediately. At the end of episode 3 of season 2 in Yellowstone.

The combination of the emotions I felt from the episode and the ones from the song made me feel really emotional.

Beautiful motion picture

Beautiful song

Henry

He tells this story better…but I will give it a try.

Henry and I had a routine, prayer and fasting, every Tuesday. We would fast all day and meet at 5pm to pray together for a while and then break our fast together. One Tuesday, I closed from work and got a call from my sales lady about the need to restock my petty business for the next day. I went about doing the needful for the business and ran really late for our prayer time.

Henry waited for about 30 minutes. He said he had had a very tasking day and was really tired and hungry.

He told me later; “I assumed you wouldn’t be back on time and so I was happy to rush a quick prayer and dive into my dinner”.

Well, unfortunately for his flesh and hunger that day, I drove into the house just when he was about to take his first bite.

He reluctantly left the food and we prayed together for a little bit and then we ate.

We laugh about that day to this day. That was about eighteen years ago.

Today, I’m thinking a lot about him and the times we shared, the talking, encouragement and lots more. Henry is my cousin, but he is also my friend. I call him brother. He is also my pastor, not just because he pastors a church of his own but he sure does know how to guide me spiritually when I need him.

I’m thinking about him because it’s his birthday, I thought I should share one of our many stories together…

Happy birthday Henry Terna Ayede…brother, friend, pastor.

Current Obsession

It’s always one thing or the other with me.

Yes

At any point in my life, I’m mildly obsessed about something.

It may be for a short period like a day or a week…sometimes it can go on for months.

There’s always something I feel very strongly about.

It could be a book, a song, a person, a sermon… anything

This week? It’s between Luke Grimes and Yellowstone.

Luke Grimes plays the role of Kayce, the last son of John Dutton in the television series ‘Yellowstone’.

I don’t know how he didn’t make an impression when I saw him in American Sniper. Maybe that wasn’t his season in my heart.

With his ruffled up cowboy look, similar to Cory Asbury and Brandon Lake…who have had their fair share of my time, Grimes has managed to capture me with his acting and his music.

I’m currently enjoying his music on Spotify and I have added a few of them to my favorites.

I hope he stays with me for a while, I like the feeling.

The Left Seat

What have you been working on?

For many years

Maybe too many…

I’ve wanted to share about it

To tell the world what I think it is…

Sometimes I jot down

Some days I enter them in my phone’s notepad

Every now and again my cousin Su’eddie nags and/or encourages me to work on it

I have begun several times

So many beginnings with no ending

Yes, lots of middles too.

I wonder when I will finish.

I have tales I want to tell, lessons to share…

from my left seat.

Tyler, he keeps showing up everywhere

I started writing this piece on the 30th of October 2021. Thank God for WordPress and it’s ability to leave your drafts for you till you need them or you don’t.

The reason I started in the first place is explained in one line above as the subject. It happened that for a certain period of time, everywhere I turned, there was a movie showing, with this one guy in it. My son likes him. He called him only by one name, no matter how many times I told him his real name, Channing Tatum was always going to be Tyler to him. We were hooked on the movie ‘Step Up’ and it’s swquels at that time.

Well, it’s three years since that happened and my son is older now and so the ‘Tyler’ is now very much Channing Tatum.

I think he is a good actor. I also think he is drawn to characters where he often has to dance, somehow… Yeah, it is in his blood.

Tatum can play just about any role; a Veteran/Policeman, a lover, a male stripper, a street fighter and many more. He gets into character like he was born that way.

I recently saw two of his latest movies; Fly me to the moon and Blink Twice.

I loved Fly me to the Moon and was excited about the telling of the Apollo 11 mission from a “let’s fake a moon landing to show the world in case the main landing fails” angle.

As for Blink Twice, hmmmmmm. I’m still in shock. Unbelievable. This is a psychological thriller. In the movie, we see how social media can create idol worship, a view on anti-capitalism, horror, thrill and shock. I’m not sure what to make of it.

In a nutshell, the movie clearly intended to show how far people can go to feel powerful. My cousin Ngodoo says they took it too far. I laughed and still laugh whenever I remember her remark. That movie stayed with me for quite some time.

For Tatum, I can only say, he was so much in character and I’m pretty scared, it was so real.

I planned to schedule this to drop on the 30th of October 2024, just to be cute…but I changed my mind.

Love Language

Yesterday afternoon I watched Ree Drummond on The Pioneer Woman as she made and delivered four chocolate based treats to loved ones.

The Pioneer Woman is TV show on the food network that features Ree in her kitchen as she cooks and shares her favorite dishes/recipes.

In this episode, she baked and gifted these treats to celebrate chocolate appreciation day. I didn’t even know there was a day for this. She explained that she chose to do this because cooking and sharing food was her love language (Acts of service).

Speaking of love languages, she made me go back to a thought I’ve had for some time now. I have always thought to myself  about how there’s ‘giving love language’ and then there is ‘receiving love language’.

I fear that the reason we may experience some problems in our relationships may be because we love people in our giving language rather than the one they would prefer to receive.

Just like Ree Drummond,I love to give my warm cooked meals to loved ones. Oh how it makes my heart smile…but, on the other hand, I would not feel particularly loved if someone made me a meal or or something like that. I think I receive words of affirmation and quality time for love.

The simplicity of all this is, I think we should love people in their love language even as we speak ours and let them know ours too, so that they can love us just right.

               🤔 Random thoughts

Finally

Earlier this year, I participated in a study along with my egroup members from Elevation Church. It was a beautiful six weeks and I enjoyed the study.

My only challenge was,I had a hard time getting the book at that time and so I had to rely on the study guide provided by the church and the few bits that we got from the sermons every Sunday during those six weeks.

I promised myself that I would read it again on my own when I got a copy. I have finally got the book and I am super excited. For me, it’s got the same feeling with my favorite book;’The purpose driven life’…but I particularly love this one because with each chapter, I could hear a few lines that had previously spoken to me in sermons he had preached before.

I plan to read and listen and journal too.

It’s a good book for me, it is a life guide with relatable references and stories.

Do The New You by Steven Furtick

The book, the study guide and the journal. Ready.

Far, yet so Close

Sometimes the phase and stage we are in life determines our relationships with people. It determines how much we think about them and even talk to them.

I’ve lived with my cousin Ngodoo twice in my life. The first time was while we did our undergraduate programs. We had enrolled at the same university at the same time, I was studying Accounting and she, Mass communication.

The university was in my hometown and so she came and stayed in her aunt’s (that would be my mom) house for the entire four year program.

I would say we were close. We had some good girl time and girl talk, especially when Gosha (another cousin) would come around. We would talk and laugh together with Msugh (my immediate older sister), making all the noise in the world.

The second time we lived together was when I went to live with my aunt in Lagos. This aunt is her aunt too but she is more her mom than an aunty. I got a job in Lagos and stayed two years with them in their home. Life was way too busy at this time so I like to think we weren’t as close as we used to be. Especially since I seemed to be in a sad mood most of that time

It’s been fourteen years since Lagos. She’s got a husband (who used to be my collegue…story for another day) and two girls and lives in London…very far away from me. …but I just realized, I’ve never felt so close to her like I have felt in the past year or so. Does she even know this? I wonder.

I think it’s the movies and the music we have been sharing and talking about lately. Gets me thinking about her when I listen to something she might like or I see a movies she would like. I’m in a phase in my life right now where my comfort comes from these things.

I felt a bit dizzy yesterday on my way back from work so I took a sick day today and binged ‘Nobody wants this’. I thought of Ngodoo. I think she will love it. It’s a ten part limited series on Netflix about a strange pairing of a Rabbi and a free talking lady with a podcast about sex. Hahahaha.

We set the rules

For as long as I’ve known my dad, he always had the  line “i deen iyol aa anza ve” on his lips. This is in our dialect, tiv language. It simply means “let people be the way they were made (their character)”. In other words, he means we shouldn’t judge or comdemn people because of who they are or how they behave or what they do.

He was never a fan of judging people about their lifestyle and ways.

Anyway, several years down the road, I started to convince myself that he repeated that as an endorsement to his lifestyle and an excuse for who and what he was. I may be wrong.

Either way, I feel it has been the reason for how I’ve maintained our relationship. I think I have taken him for who he is and I have let him be the way he is.

I’m only hoping it won’t pose a problem with how I feel now and how there is a need for me to make some contributions to an author who is trying to tell his story…I’m afraid she won’t like or even use the tales that I have to tell.

Maybe I’m making an excuse for myself but I just keep telling myself that he set the rules in the first place.

No one is exempted.