Let's Play 'Pretend' - A Love Story

It is said that life is meant to be lived in phases. This is so because of how complex it can become when we are faced with all the realities we have to deal with. We are left to constantly think through and figure out every next step that will lead us from point A to B looks like. Juggling all of this is exhausting and there is no way these can be done alone – No! Continue reading

“Yes indeed, it won’t be long now.” God’s Decree. “Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won’t be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once – and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like hills. I’ll make everything right…” Amos 9:13 – 14 MSG I saw a butterfly perch on the sunflower in my garden and it seemed they…

“My autopsia is my vision for tomorrow – it is my staying power.” – Caleb Ekpenyong “It’s been a bad year.” That was the conclusion they came to on his behalf. It was their autopsy report and in a way it did tend to define in total completeness his entire activity for that year. I had decided to shift gear to talk about our autopsia which translates to ‘seeing with one’s own eyes’. We owe to…

Roses smell nice and diamonds look great. Have you had to ask yourself which you would prefer as a gift? I would definitely go for diamonds – I hear they last forever. I also hear they get beat up a lot too. They are born into hiding but when they are found; their master puts it under severe heat and calls it purification. They are taken from one level of heating process to another. I always…

“Awww! What’s wrong with you? How can you even suggest that I get naked?” This was the one question I asked when I first heard him whisper it to me. This happened during one of my hangout sessions with myself. I did not make sense of it immediately but with time it dawned on me why I had to get naked. Getting naked presupposes that one is exposed, vulnerable and transparent in a sense. When life…

“The key to forgiving and letting go is embedded in reckless love” – Caleb Ekpenyong I remember crying and whimpering like a child in the comfort of my room that bore no comfort for the depressing mode I had found myself at the time. I wanted to die. Not hide but die. Why was this? I felt worthless, hopeless and unloved. For every look that was casted my way; to me, was judgment for being ‘not…

“Own your journey”. – Caleb Ekpenyong In your journey, expect that you’ll not always meet the many expectations you’ve placed on yourself not to talk about the ones set by the many people around you. The society will always set a pace and standard at which you should grow, what you should eat, how you should dress, how to address yourself – ‘millennial, old school, dumb fashion, and new…

“This does not define me neither should you allow it define you!” – Caleb Ekpenyong The one question we ask ourselves when we fail is this; “how do we start all over again?” Sometimes it seems impossible and we are left clueless as to what to do when faced with the very thing we thought we had conquered. In the words of Tolu Falode; “when you are on the road to writing your own story, there…

Snap walking used to be enough before this. This lulling pain that won’t go away. The one that comes and goes.  I walk to clear my head, to think and visualize perspective but these recent walks only seem to always break me. It births more questions than answers and it’s like a tide in the ocean, it rises rather quickly with every fading step. It seems like yesterday, we were alive and in love…

Oluwadamilola’s Love Letter to 2020

2020,

From where I’m standing, you seem like a ham kind of year, one looming with many potential commitments. If no, why then do you have your numbers repeated?

So, dear repetition,

I’m not shy to be skeptical about you, it’s how I’ve viewed every commitment I’ve had to make; maybe not one leg in, one leg out but why do we have to go all the way and all at once? Sigh. This is me overreaching,…

Oluwadamilola’s Love Letter to 2019

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Hi 2019

I’ve always had a thing for the number 19. It’s a prime number, divisible by nothing besides 1 and itself. It had to be a special number and then I was born on the 19th day right in the middle of another special kind of year. I wasn’t going to let the fact that 19 was crossing my radar twice in the same year go to waste. It couldn’t have been a coincidence, right? You were my leap year,…

Ayo’s Love Letter to 2019

Dear 2019,

This is maybe the most awkward letter to you

Seeing that we just drank last night

Our tipsy voices moaning on how we really felt about each other

But then, you know your girl is a writer of things

And write she must

We went from a high to a low

To tears and pain (more…)

Toyin’s Love Letter to 2020

Dear 2020,

I can only see you from afar. 

The sight is not yet clear but I see a frame of you.

You look so perfect from afar

You look so complete, lacking nothing!

You look so beautiful!

You look excellent!

You look so promising!

You have a big smile on your face as you move closer! 

  I hope I am seeing well!

You look like a fresh sweet dew from heaven!

You look like a nicely packed gift from…

Toyin’s Love Letter to 2019

Dear 2019,

I should be angry with you but I am not.

I should have great regrets but I don’t.

I should be disappointed by all the things you made come my way without prior notice but I won’t.

I REJOICE in you. 

You told me you can not be moved by anyone, anything or any number, but I wish I understood what you were saying early enough. 

I wish I get you, 19 – you are so special, only number 1 can…

Peju’s Love Letter to 2020

Hey 2020,

I’m so excited we roll into you in a few days, can I take a sneak peek and see all of you pleeeeaasseeee. I can already feel that so much is going to happen, I feel the joy overflowing already. I’m ready to meet the new friends that are coming and the experiences that would continue to churn me into a bulwark against every negativity.

Sliding into you with so much happiness, I’m not…

Dami’s Love Letter to 2019

Dear 2019 

Wow. 

Wow. 

Just wow.

I would not have thought I would be here. And alive for that matter. But here we are. Funny thing is, I would pay to have the year still turn out the way it did. 

But before I start grumbling, I wanna say Thank you. 

Thank you for teaching me how to put myself first. All those little lessons and that one big one? They taught me that no one is better than I am. No…

Peju’s Love Letter to 2019

Dear 2019,

Writing to you is interesting, first; I’m thinking to myself as I type – ‘am I writing to time as its fizzling away or writing to myself’, whatever it is, it feels great to pen down my thoughts. The year has been a wonderful one. Imagine what it feels like to be on an open-roofed train moving on good speed, catching the sight of the seaside with the sun setting just enjoying the…