Boundaries of Experience

“Happy Birthday To You, Happy Birthday To You…”
“Congratulations, you are now 18”
“Have a blessed year ahead!”

These were the words that resonated in my head and heart ON THIS DAY the 20th of Feb, my birthday.

I have so many reasons why I call this day a PRICELESS DAY!

On this day… I was born
On this day… I turned 1,2,3,4, … ,17
On this day… I turned 18
On this day… My perspectives of life evolved to yet another level
And on this day… Words fall short to describe what’s on my heart.

About a month before this day, I thought to myself…
“I’ll be 18!… So what?” (woohoo… I can watch M18!, drive a car!,buy a whisky, visit PUBs,)
(hmm…well to me, all those are child’s play … Lol)

The real answer only came ON THIS DAY …

Before I share what being 18 means to me…
I’d like to show my utmost sincere gratefulness to all those who has made THIS DAY special for me…

My beloveth family! … Sisters and bro, mum and dad

My dear vibe members!

All those friends out there sent me birthday wishes on facebook and beyond…

Your seemingly small acts have traveled a thousand miles into my heart!…they aren’t small after all.

Now back to what being an adult, at least a young one, means to me.

Funny enough ON THIS DAY… I woke up the latest, lying in bed and doing nothing at home almost all day till evening.

In the evening I left for a Young Adult Conference CRASH ‘09 (a perfect way to start ur young adult life)

It was in this conference that my eyes were really opened to what it means to be an adult…
A strengthening of core values and beliefs took place…
And a foundation for a whole new set of perspectives about life was built…ON THIS DAY…

Have you ever wondered what is it that seperates us humans from other animals?

The typical answer would be – HUMANS CAN THINK, animals can’t.

Well, that’s a good answer if you are not really thinking.

If you thinking deeper, you’ll come to realize that it is wired into our DNA to be able to think, thats the only reason why we do.

Animals likewise, only do things that are wired into their DNAs, like responding instinctively.

As living beings, we are all wired to do anything in our capability to survive, which means that our ability to think is what keeps us alive!

Now I’ve thought, and i realized that the main difference between us and animals is that we can do things that we aren’t wired to do…

We can live to actualize our utmost potentials…

We can live for something outside of ourselves… (God, others)

We can love without measure…

These are the things that make us HUMAN!

“There’s no greater purpose than this, when a man places the purpose of his existence on something outside of himself.

This is when true fulfillment is achieved.”

When next you think of doing something, think of doing it for someone else or for God…

I just checked out one of those fowarded emails titled “Almighty God”

It had quite an interesting story…

The following inspiring quotes were embodied in the email…check them out!

“Love starts with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a tear”

“Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget”

“Dont let the past hold you back, your missing the good stuff”

“When it hurts to look back and you’re scared to look ahead,

you can look beside you and your BEST FRIEND will be there”

“Nobody is perfect untill you fall in love with them”

“Every minute spent angry, is 60 seconds of happiness wasted.”

Hope these quotes enlightened your heart, and awakened that feeling and assurance that

that is always hope (just to say the least) and that you’ve got immeasurab treasure inside of you…

Cheers…

“There is no greater love than this, for a man to lay down his life for his brethren…JESUS LOVES U!”

WEDDING DAY 1   

‘Hey wake up guys!,’ said my dad in a loud voice. ‘I’ve got something for you to do.’ That was the first thing I heard that Friday morning, the day my sister had her traditional marriage.

‘Ok guys, I need you to take charge of clearing the lawn of all unwanted things, filling it with sharp sand and then gravel. It’ll help us control the amount of sand entering the house.’ That’s how the work for the day began, in preparation for the big event, for me, my bro and his best friend Tonye. It was about 7 in the morning, and we worked till about 2pm. WOW! I experienced what it feels like to be a laborer. It was tasking, tiring, tedious, mundane and unexpected. But you know what, I don’t regret doing it, because nothing is too tasking as long as it’s for the good of my sister’s marriage.

 

Alright! the preparation phase is over, and now the main event is about to start. My sister is dressed in an amazing traditional attire (unique to our race), and looking more beautiful that I had ever seen…

 

 

The traditional marriage was meant just the people of our home town, OKIJA. It featured the elders, seated in a specially designed mud-house, and the rest of the town people.

 

Here’s the sequence for the traditional marriage.

 

Phase 1 – The bridal train, all dressed in traditional attires come out of the house dancing, to bid everyone a warm welcome. Music plays in the background as they dance round to the elders and the audience and back into the house.

(as the bride dances, random people come out to spray money on the floor for them. This repeats itself each time they dance)

 

 

Phase 2 – Some men show up dancing, to present the bride price to the elders of the village. The price consisting of many gallons of locally made wine, soft drinks, goat, many tubers of yam, and so much more. The wine being the most significant (you’ll know why).

 

Phase 2b – A man takes a cup, and tastes the wine, from all the gallons. This is to make sure its good and safe to be taken by the bride and groom.

 

Phase 3 – The bridal train is now dressed in a different traditional attire. They dance out as usual, and the bride then goes to the senior chief of the town. He takes a glass of wine, makes a speech and gives it to the bride to find her husband. She now has to dance through the audience to find her husband and give him the wine.

 

 

 

This marks their marriage.

 

Phase 4 – Music plays in the background and the two of them dance along with relatives to celebrate their marriage.

 

 

 

It was a memorable day, duh!… I danced, ate, met lots of old friends and relatives, including those I couldn’t remember anymore.

OK! This was an experience, meaning there’s always a second part to it – the learning point!

I’ll save the best for the last

SAFETY FIRST – Always wear your seat belt!

Didn’t have mine on. It was God that protected me in the accident.

 

Romans 8:28 – And we know that all things word together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.

 

This verse above here has gone from my head to my heart. I feel the words now and I understand with a strong conviction, the meaning of this verse (at least to me personally)

3 weeks ago, my dad had an accident on his way to the village, a more severe one. His car was more damaged than ours, but it happened that he wasn’t hurt at all.

Then ours just happened.

This is a period where we getting ready for the first wedding in our family in concurrence with Christmas. Then you wonder why all this is happening at this time.

Different parties were involved in the accident; the boy and his family, the owners of the fence, the men that sent the boy to the hospital, my family and the big event we’re preparing for.

 

Considering all these, I looked deep, and found out that this might have been a method God is using to take care of issues in the lives of those involved.

After the incident, my dad decided to give a token of thanks to the men that sent the boy to the hospital. The man got the remaining cost of his motorcycle that was still on lease, fully paid for. An equivalent of the sum was given to the second guy involved.

The boys family will also be getting some aid.

As I mentioned before, the relationship between me and my bro has gone to another level.

 

Another inspiration I can get from this incident is from the saying – ‘The higher the challenge, the higher the victory.’

My dad said that, all these will make him even push the event further and with more passion and drive.

SO YEAH!

Today is a Saturday, and we’re in the middle of the preparation for my beloved sister, Onyinye’s wedding.

Work as usual on the site – doing the little tasks and covering the backs of the workers…

We were moving into the new house today and I was given the job of helping PAPA (my grand father) arrange his new room and sort out his belongings…

Ouh… ‘All these your files need to be put in a carton, but there’s none available so I’ll have to go and buy.’ Alright son, I’ll wait.

And off I went with my bro to the market with him on the driving seat.

We searched for a while, and finally found one. We’re we’re now on the way back, and according to my bro, everything seemed perfect at that moment (nothing much to worry about, everything was going smoothly).

The area we were had a soccer field by the road side and a match was on going. Lots of people crowded the area, all around the pitch, and by the roadside. It was a two way road, and seeing there was no car ahead of us at that moment my bro accelerated the vehicle(from 40 – 50kmph). Then SUDDENLY, there comes a van right in front approaching at a similar speed. In the process of trying to avoid the van, bro lost control of the vehicle and BOOM! We’re off the road, and BOOM! We ran into a little boy on the just  beside the road, and BOOM! We knocked into the fence of the nearest compound, breaking it down. All these happened in the space of 5 seconds… UNBELIEVABLE!

Somehow I was still conscious and with the shock of my life, I said to my bro ‘OMG Ekene, we’ve killed that boy.’ As I looked over, I saw an even more traumatized face on my bro. Bystanders immediately crowded the scene and one of the men carried the boy and sent him to the hospital. He had blood all over his face.

By God’s saving grace, neither me nor my bro was hurt, but the car was badly crashed. My air bag was even activated.

My bro quickly called my dad, and he came and took control of the situation. He calmed the chaos in the crowd, sent us back home and sent my uncle and anty to the hospital to see the boy.

The issue now was whether the boy was still alive.

Well, news came back and we found out that the boy was… guess

STILL ALIVE! …AMEN!

The problem was that his left arm was fractured, and he had a severe cut on his jaw…

Ultimately we really thank God that me and my bro weren’t hurt and the boy was still alive, because it would have brought about an insurmountable negative twist to the whole double-festive season.

 

At home, I spent some quality time with my bro after I saw him in a mood I’ve never seen before (at least that I can remember). We shared some stuff from deep within and I believe that brought our relationship to another level (something I’ve been craving and praying for).

Yeah men…if you’re reading this now it means you’re a very important person to me…

This is where i’ll pour out my heart about stuff and both inside and out…

This is where i’ll share some important ideas that i guess might be useful to anyone reading…

This is where I expedite my desire to EMBRACE LIFE WITH PASSION!

So thanks for visiting … and hang in there for the regular posts!

Cheers!

You’re more important to me than you think…
The world we live in is a very big one. Have you ever wondered how big, awesome and thrilling this world is?
You can start by looking inside of you, and then looking up…

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all thy might ”

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!