YOUR TURN: A PIECE OF XOXA...

Hey people, I am featuring this piece by friend and sister, Xoxa Icha... I hope you enjoy it!

MY NEIGHBOURHOOD

I live in a hood where everything is for sale
Money talks, walks and steps on those who fail
Consciences, truths and witness all tagged with prices
Where virtues are suppressed to uplift vices

Where I live boys are men and men are boys
And women save a select few, are turned into toys
To make a better life happen faster
The dream of climbing higher
With a bunch of colored paper as master

Where I live the law is the robber
And the robber is the law
Positions are bought and sold
Not earned anymore

Where I live fruits come before the seed
Students don’t write exams
But yet they succeed
Good jobs no merits
Others worthy but jobless... loaded with credit

For those who go to school and choose to make honest grades
Find learning a tiresome yet worthy wade
Through a sea that seemingly has no end
Under broken bridges that never mend

Where I live rocks fall in place of the promised rain
The silenced men below struggle to stay sane
Their silence outweighs the collected bribes
A better life-an idea imbibed

In my hood people die when the truth is told
Honest men are few and hardly grow old
The liars capture them
Not just at night, even in the day
And bury them unashamedly with anything they have to say
Some men look on and others look away

The jails are filled
Yet the guilty walk free
Gnawing at an inheritance left to my brothers and me

This is my hood
The real picture
This is my area
My neighborhood, Nigeria

A DREAM IN HAND IS BETTER THAN TWO IN THE BUSH.

I took a risk and quit my job five months ago. I wasn’t prepared to move but I was ready to leave. And once I made the decision, the rest of my life caught up to where my convictions had gotten me. It was a significant change and it let me learn new things about myself and ask questions of my fears rather than take counsel of them. I learnt that:

# It wasn’t true that I couldn’t survive without a job. There was time to work on my projects and convert other skills into income. 

# It wasn’t true that leaving one job without having another waiting was necessarily a poor decision. Telling the next employer you are ready to start immediately could put you one foot ahead of someone who needs to give their current employer a month’s notice. 

# It wasn’t true that finding another job would be hard. It wasn’t.

I also experienced many amazing miracles. Little and big things worked in my favor. Someone aptly described it as taking a leap of faith and thankfully, I landed on good ground.

In other news, I am celebrating!

It’s my birthday today so this is me YAYing! (“Yaying” is Haruna’s definition of me jumping with one leg in the air, arms stretched upwards with glee!)

My birthday comes in the second half of the year, giving me another opportunity to take a look at where I am and what direction I am headed like I do at the beginning of the year.  I always like to reflect on my life and I tend to measure my life by accomplishments and progression in my career and goals. But today is not for the shadows of reflection, it’s all celebration and taking in the good will and blessings of my nearest and dearest!  

On a parting note, The phrase “a dream in hand is better than two in the bush” titles a realization I had yesterday. Somewhere in the future I see myself doing many things, things I am reaching for with the present. But yesterday I caught a glimpse of other accomplishments being presented to me- equally desirable dreams that require the energies of today if I will achieve them.

While we are chasing a reality we want to accomplish in the future, there are several dreams tittering on the brink of our awareness waiting to be gifted to us in the now. 

So I have decided to be in the moment so I can make the most of the gift and timeframe called the present.

Today? I am celebrating love, life and living!