T.Notes#57: The ones who wandered and wrestled

 =Lagos=

I lost my faith🥀

=Lagos=

I lost my faith

in a crowded hospital parking lot

Clutching final medical results for a dear one

And screaming my lungs

like a badly written script.

=Flight=

Sometimes we take flight🦅

It is not absurd

When life forces you to lose faith

in simple things like

Prayer, hope and a God of justice.

We are only human.

=Accra=

We found a local banku joint🍻

And allowed the day idle away

until the canteens closed shops

and the kitchen stewards exchanged cutleries for stilettoes and flavored condoms.

These are the days of our lives.

=Punta Cana=

Heaven pardon our intoxicated nights🎭

Reggae dancehall, Konshens,

cheap alcohol damning every boundary of decency.

Skin, sweat and inhibited sexuality of total strangers mangled into each other. 

=Paris=

Days we'd go any length to feel alive🐂

As if holding our own lives by its cuffs,

acting out and daring heaven's attention.

Whilst the local choir reminded us in the morning that we were bruking off our souls closer to damnation.

=Wandering home🏚=

Dad used to talk about

making it to heaven

on a broken wing and a tired prayer.

With our multitude of questions abandoned 

this side of eternity,

Doubts and anger exchanged for wonder.

=London=

I found my faith on a rainy monday🦋

It returned bandy legged, sensibly cynical

and no longer demanding the heavens

for my share of the miraculous.

An unsensational type of faith

In an assuredly quiet and sturdy sort of way

=Today=

I am that guy🍃

Who is looking past your kodak charm

To fall in love instead

With the stunning bookcase behind you

Wondering if you read Tozer

And if you are also broken like me.

=Remembering=

If heaven reads a blog✒

Tell Dad that i am the wild one

who wandered and wrestled..

And after all is said, done and broken

I think i am still hanging on

Four years and counting

On a wing and a quiet prayer.

This is remembering.

T.Notes#56: COW (Chronicles of a wrong decision)

 I analysed the Situation,🤓

I took my Shot,🔫

Now i am Screwed.🙆‍♂️

I call this one, COW🐴

aka

Chronicles Of a Wrong Decision🐮

This is a blog of note. It will be brief, honest and uncoded.

Exactly one year ago, i conducted a careful long term analysis of my career prospects. It was honestly going great but the prospects for future pay increases was starting to flatten, which is not in line with my needs. Plus i was conscious of meeting a certain salary target before a certain age.

So i whipped out my honestly impressive CV, concluded a few rounds of interviews and accepted a senior role in a bank. There was a good deal of providence involved in the whole situation, but let's leave that for now. P.S, I really like the defination of providence - protective care of God or of nature as a spiritual power.

From day one stepping into the place, I knew i was going to dislike it and that view has not really changed. I dislike the extreme notice-me politics, i dislike that there are only a handful of black people in the bank.  The WHOLE  BANK - Five black people! I dislike working till 2am everyday and being told we have not met the target.

The only thing i like is the money and the supposed prestige. My linkedin community think i am a big deal but that is so far from the truth. It is a title and it sounds great yes, but the reality beneath the title is a hot mess. I have learnt not to covert anybody's life because you don't know their discontent. I am also thankful for working from home since covid broke out. It has lessened my migraines.

I started feeling boxed into a corner. I hate feeling cornered and i extremely loathe office politics which indicated that i might not do so well here. Born nigerian, i am not wired that way - we are either direct to the point, to your face or there is nothing to say. So less that one year in role, i whipped out that CV again which suddenly did not look impressive anymore. Infact it looked pretty desperate in my opinion. Why do you want to leave your current role less than one year in? Oh, i realised it was a COW decision.🤷‍♂️

It got crazy to the extent that i'd accept any job, even a junior role- just get me out of this place fast! However this time, we are in the middle of a freak pandemic; everyone is looking for a job, so the prospects for me was never going to be good. So after twenty rounds of desperate interviews, nobody was convinced about my blagging on why i will not jump ship again. 

So here we are and I'd love for this story to have a happy ending, but it does not. Sometimes life does not have happy endings or maybe i am simply in that 'in-between' part of the story before it all makes sense. At the moment it does not and my middle name feels like COW. I realise i should be thankful, yes i know that. But there is a certain type of internal turmoil that exceeds explanation or spiritualising. You can't fake happiness.

You know that narrative about how Noah entered this big ole boat and God shut the door, literaly boxing him in - that is how it feels. Shut in with the wolves, snakes and crazy monkeys. I used to imagine if Noah could have opened that door himself to bail out at some point, because it seems like i surely can't in my case. Besides, someone once said 'who the Lord has blessed, no man can curse.' So the reverse is quite likely to be true. An gross exaggeration but you get the point.

So where i am now, you ask? I know that my discontent has given alarming free reins to my excessivess. I am also writing motivational quotes and praying everyday to maintain my sanity. And i stay active like the rest of us professional liars on linkedin. I do believe that all things work together for good. I also know that when we become mere men backed into a corner, you have no choice but the knuckle up and fight. This is what i feel like we are all doing - literally scrambling like rats for the bigger pay cheque. It is not the way to live a life but C'est la vie.

In closing, words can save lives.

Here are some fine words by Kike Oniwinde

Which totally made sense to me:

There is beauty in discomfort,

There is beauty in the process,

There is discomfort in creating comfort.

Remember that,

This is bigger than just you.