The Wayfarer

Discovery: Aduke by TJan

2016-07-28T14:09:00.001+01:00

Another feel-good love song that I fell in love with! Enjoy!

Ifeolu's Time

2016-07-27T23:36:00.003+01:00

Time to face the world's dilemmas,
Time to love and laugh once more.
Time to mend the broken hearted,
Hang a welcome on the door. Time to hear the children's laughter,
Time to unpollute our Earth.
Time to cure the world's diseases,
Fill all hearts with joy and mirth. Time to save Earth for the children,
Time to plant and reap again.
Time to save the beasts and forests,
To be free - each race - all men.

Joyce Marie Hayes

I made this portrait of Ifeolu, a beautiful bride, a few days ago.

Discovery: Lojosi by Omotayo

2015-11-19T16:21:00.001+01:00

Those who know me know I don't joke with my music-saying myself that I know good music is not conceit.

What I will do with my "Discovery" blog series is to introduce new music or a new book-or just a feature of something from my archives, library or playlist.

Today's feature is "Lojosi". I got this one off a feature on notjustok.com. I don't know this artiste at all but I hope he has more from where this came from. Listen!

http://notjustok.com/2014/09/10/omotayo-lojosi/

Creative Commons

2015-04-10T11:52:00.000+01:00

So, here's that Creative Commons post I promised last year. It's taken a while but it's not any less potent. The cartoon below illiustrates it perfectly and needs no further explanation. Enjoy!

Cartoon by Karlisson Bezzera. Source: http://slav.global2.vic.edu.au/2011/03/18/creative-commons-made-simple/#.VSeo6_nF-Sr

Intellectual Property for Photographers

2015-04-10T11:28:00.000+01:00

I will write a proper post on this topic soon but I need to share this video first!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/16551294

Blogging Law

2014-11-21T13:52:00.001+01:00

There's actually nothing like Blogging Law. Intellectual Property Laws cover everything even though the tendency is to have fanciful areas of law now-Entertainment Law, Media Law, TV Law, Internet Law etc. Yes, technology and innovation have opened up new areas of Law but we should all not forget the grundnorm-the right to protect our creativity a.k.a Intellectual Property Law.

Let me bring it home. We all know what happened to popular Nigerian blogger, Linda Ikeji recently? If you don't, then it is time to make Google your friend once again! In summary, I would say Linda was accused of:

(1) Not properly attributing reported stories to the original authors.

(2) Using creative works belonging to other people without permission.

That's plagiarism and intellectual property theft. I won't concern myself with the particulars of Linda's travails but as a law and a creative person, I am more than concerned about the little details that creative people generally ignore. Ok, I've deviated from "Law for Bloggers" as the title of this post suggests but what in want to address is useful for non-bloggers as well. Get familiar with these as rules and you won't have to bother with the "Letter and Spirit of the Law".

Here goes:

(1) Don't republish blog posts. That's lazy.Do a little research on that post you "stumbled upon", offer your own perspective, edit, attribute and you might well have an original story on your hands. That's what rersearch is and I dare say the opposite is plagiarism! The other way out of this is to cite your sources-that's attribution. Link back to the source blog post and you'll be fine. Read more about plagiarism here.

(2) Don't use pictures or publish videos that you did not create without permission or attribution. If you say you can't seek permission or attribute everything, It's either you set out with the intention to steal in the first place or you are simply lazy. The TMZs of this world have solid legal and regulatory structures in place so don't bring that excuse up. As a photographer myself, I will strnagle anybody who uses my pictures without permission. Those creations are like babies to us owners and you don't want to be tagged a baby thief or kidnapper. It's copyright infringement. You can either link to the owner of the image, buy royalty-free stock images, use Creative Commons Images or simply ask for permission! Yes, the owner could have licensed it in such a way that anyone can share it but then, you are not familiar with Creative Commons/Licensing, are you? I'll write something about that soon.

(3) Don't ever publish false and damaging information. We know that gossip blogging is the new sensational journalism/yellow press and it drives traffic but you don't want to use all the money you make to pay lawyers like me, do you? As your lawyer, I would rather you comport yourself from the beginning and not expose yourself to defamation. I know that asking gossip bloggers not to publish damaging or hurtful information will happen when hens start growing teeth, so I won't even go there.

(4) Develop a Usage Policy/Terms of Use for your website. Guess what? Those crazy comments on Bella Naija and Linda Ikeji belong to the author of those comments! Yes, you own your blog but the crazy commenter still has Freedom of Speech.You can't just delete anyhow unless you had spelt it out right from the beginning! Make Google your best friend once again and find a nice template to modify.

(5) Have a Privacy Policy. Most bloggers usually want to have Newsletter option on their blogs to enhance reachability but in this no-longer-private world, you need to assure your readers that the email they entered into that blank space does not end up with that telecom company advertising on your blog!

(6) This last one is not about law but branding-get a secure hosting site for your blog as well as a customised domain name. My 2 kobo for Linda was not that Blogger was not secure. It is secure, I am on it but you won't see www.seunidowu.blogspot.com! It is www.seunidowu.com. I could also have www.seunidowu.blog If I want to. New domain name extensions are in vogue and the list of approved ones is growing. That's why my photography portfolio is at www.imagopro.photography. Dot Com is dead! I'll write something about that death soon! #RantOver

I'm back! Am I?

2014-03-21T16:42:00.002+01:00

Hello Friends,

I've not really gone anywhere. I've been blogging on Facebook. I get instant responses there. Wellllll...nothing can beat the diary feel of a real blog! Since my last post, I have allowed myself get better with photography(so, yes, I'm better at photography and I even do it commercially now)-check out my photos at www.imagopro.photography or, If you have access to my Facebook profile, my "Photography" album.Let me know what you think when you've reviewed it.

I have also gotten married. Very interesting! My wife is my match, simple! We are enjoying marriage, its perks and peeves. I love my new life-a life only responsible people can succeed in. Ces't finis! More posts coming up!

Weddings!

2013-05-24T17:39:00.003+01:00

So I love weddings. Who doesn't? Well, I actually made a vow that I won't become a wedding photographer just because everyone is into it. So, I concentrated on my strongest points-landscape, street and documentary photography.

However, the more weddings I went for with my camera, the more amazing pictures I brought back home and seeing a bride's smile and a groom's joy and freezing those precious microseconds into eternal frames, the more fulfilled I felt. I saw that there was actually a place for documentary wedding photography.

So here's a link to my wedding photography portfolio. I don't show many faces because I don't have the permission to.

A nation's hope

2013-04-23T17:12:00.000+01:00

There's hope for you... and for everyone that works hard to earn a living...your struggle to earn a living indirectly affects the other person whose need you serve by not giving up to laziness...there's hope for us all.

Nigeria has an abundance of hardworking people. People who trudge on despite the high cost of living and low standard of living. A Nigerian will sleep anywhere, work anywhere, live anywhere..as long as he can hope for the next day's rising sun. March on, Spirit!

In the end...it's the legacy of 3

2013-02-19T01:00:00.003+01:00

In the end, what will remain? Nature? Really, no one knows...when this world ends or when WE reach our end in this world, we don't know what will remain. Dusk will fall and everything will go dark.

Whether the earth goes or we go, nothing of this will concern us. We all face an uncertain future. After death, we do not know where we will end up..so we are urged to make things right with the Almighty. However, three things will surely last forever: Faith, Hope and Love(1 Corinthians 13:13) and we all know love is the greatest of the 3. Leave a legacy of these 3 things and you won't have to worry about what's going to happen when you're gone. Most importantly, live love and leave love.

This post is dedicated to loved ones who left recently.. who left a legacy of 3: Mrs. P.M. Adenuga, Mr. Yemi Alli (you gave love, Bros)...and to those who left a while ago but who have proven the efficacy of the legacy of 3: Ademola Idowu, Olusola "Akaraogun" Idowu and too many others...

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love! (1 Corinthians 13:12-13 MSG)

Photo note: I got these long exposure shots of this withered tree at a location in Victoria Island, Lagos. Funny how this particular subject seems to inspire me much. I had to add the moon and the cloud movements this time. They add some drama.

Hope

2013-01-18T08:44:00.000+01:00

For many people, hope rises at sunrise...with some anxiety. For others, sunset gives even more hope...the gold reminds us of the treasure that still lies within us...for tomorrow...no anxiety...fresh hope for dreamers and optimists.

Photo Note: I got this shot from my office window. One day my boss will know why I was so keen on getting a window seat.

Dry

2012-11-23T09:32:00.000+01:00

Dirt farmers, despair!

Grape growers, wring your hands!

Lament the loss of wheat and barley.

All crops have failed.

Vineyards dried up,

fig trees withered,

Pomegranates, date palms, and apple trees—

deadwood everywhere!

And joy is dried up and withered

in the hearts of the people (Joel 1: 11-12 MSG)

...may the dryness in our hearts and lives be replaced with springs of wellness and joy. I took this picture at Victoria Island, Lagos. Note the blue skies behind the dry fig tree...a sign of freshness in the midst of dryness.

Tack Sharp!

2012-11-19T14:27:00.000+01:00

It's been a while. No excuse but I've been consumed by many things. Things that I will start sharing here. I have been torn between setting up a separate blog for photography and sticking with The Wayfarer. Well, I'm sticking with the Wayfarer because it's a collection of my many wandering thoughts...and I have been expressing that through photography. I'm not a professional yet, and that's not because I don't think I'm better than some photographers who have become known as professionals, but because (1) there's a lot to learn and (2) I have "filled" myself with a lot of good pictures from all over the world and I must match, If not beat those standards. Tack Sharp is the word for excellence in photography so I muse be tack sharp. Behind every picture I will share, there surely is a story. I hope I don't bore you....

It's nearby...

2012-06-21T15:06:00.000+01:00

It really hurts..the way we've been carrying on in Southern Nigeria with our 'evil will not come near our dwelling' attitude.We just go about our 'normal business' because the bombings in the North don't affect us directly.. or haven't affected us yet.

Oh yeah, this is just a continuation of my rant about selfishness. We could protest when fuel price increased, why can't we picket our Government to do EVERYTHING it can to give us what we have left of the basic necessities-protection? It shows where our priorities lie...a war is brewing,people are being killed in front of us and all we can think of is that our family is NOT affected.



Do you think Somalia
is far away? Do you think what happened in Rwanda cannot happen here? They saw
the handwriting on the wall but brushed it aside. Next day, they woke up to
find everyone gone. Not everything, EVERY ONE. If the war(yes, this means war)
comes down South, those things we care about will disappear. That nice school,
that younger brother, those nice cars, the cute buildings, that FUTURE...No one
will be able to come to work or make that money that's so important to
us...there will be no food, no water, families will be scattered..even the
President will not have a country to govern...it is really every single
person's duty to ensure this rubbish stops!!





Show you care. Do
something! Spread useful news on social media to sensitize and not useless
jokes about everything that should make you reflect. People are being killed,
it could be YOU! Send recharge cards so that they'll be able to call the
authorities for help. Let's start writing petitions. Flood the newspapers and
magazines with articles. If the government cannot contain what is happening in
Jos, Kaduna and other states in the North, then they should say so. Let the
Government seek external help. Our sovereignty is already a theory so let's not
talk about that now.

We need to do this.
Stop being selfish. It's not all about you. It's about you, your neighbour and
the children that will lay claim to the name Nigeria when you are no more. They
are already killing the next generation. Last Sunday's bombing was of a
children's church. They are already destroying what we have left-our faith and
hope.


Nigeria is too
beautiful a nation for it to go to ruins before our very eyes. We need to go
from potential to actuality. From dream to reality. From 'rich in human and
natural resources' to trendsetter. The whole of Africa is looking to us for
inspiration! 

Well...I had a strange
nightmare many months ago and I'll have to share it in my next post...it seems
to be coming to pass.

View these pictures
with caution: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TalkNigeria/message/124654

Photo credits:

http://nigeriamasterweb.com/blog/index.php/2012/01/19/intersociety-writes-jonathan-on-the

http://www.christianpost.com/news/6-dead-8-wounded-after-gunman-opens-fire-in-nigerian-church-66540/

http://joskillings.blogspot.com/

Oh Selfish You!

2012-06-05T15:44:00.000+01:00

Selfishness is hard thing to hide. There is a thin line between selfishness and greed. I believe you have to be selfish first before being greedy. You have to be both selfish and greedy to be classified "corrupt". I see selfishness everywhere. Our prayers are selfish! We hear of a disaster and we say " Thank God I was not there" and that's it! We talk as if we have some special kind of anointing or grace. Anything that happens to anybody else could have happened to you! You can have cancer, it's not a rich man's disease!

You can be afflicted with any disease under the sun! When you are selfish, you find it difficult to put yourself in other people's shoes. All you do is just wish it away. You only pray for protection and good health for your family. It's all about yourself. You don't pray for the nation and the plight of others who are not as privileged as you, after all you didn't cause their problems.

You don't feel the pain of those innocent people living in the North, after all, they are killing "themselves". You probably would start getting concerned when bombs start exploding in your backyard! I apologise! You cared about the removal of fuel subsidy, right? That was just because it affected you directly, you selfish one! You wouldn't really care whether the price of kerosene has increased, after all, you only use cooking gas.

Now, it's the Plane Crash. Your empathy lessened the moment you had gone through the manifest and you saw that none of your family members were there. Nothing sobers you until it directly affects you. How about praying for something that does not concern you in any way?

How about caring for someone you're not related to? If you did, you would know that it is your problem that the power sector is in the state it is in, whether you have a standby generator or not. How about caring to revive the education sector in your country? It's not about whether you can afford to send your kids abroad or to a private school here. Maybe you think "it's okay" because your child with the foreign degree will still be the boss of the bright guy whose father could only send him to the local school? How about caring about how your negligence or action could lead to the loss of lives? You want to mix that petrol with kerosene? You want to package baby powder as baby food? All because you know you will sell it far away from you and the chances are remote that your child will eat it?

Maybe this nation will move forward if you were less selfish. Maybe you're the cog in the wheel.

Take these quizzes to find out how selfish you are:

http://www.blogthings.com/howselfishareyouquiz/

http://quizilla.teennick.com/quizzes/4091507/how-selfish-are-you

"If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks"-George Carlin

I will be me

2012-05-25T16:35:00.000+01:00

I will be me. I will become me. I may start out as a lawyer but end up a musician. When I was a baby, did I know what I would look like at 30? Or what I would be doing?Whatever it is that I have not done now will still be done. If it never gets done, it's okay, that's me, too. I didn't come to do everything I dreamt of doing-not someone like me with so many dreams. There's the Musician, the Writer, the Traveler, the Lover, the Lawyer, the Media/PR specialist, the Husband, the Father. They all live here. I've fulfilled many dreams, but most of them were not mine. I walked into them. Not work. I have failed at some of the things I worked myself into but succeeded at the walk-intos. Some of them were even walk-throughs.

In any case, I have chosen to keep walking. I will walk into Me one day.

*Thank you for inspiring this write-up after many months of writer's block, Modele. That song is a catalyst.

I love Casting Crowns!!!

2011-10-19T17:40:00.002+01:00

I hated that genre of music called "Rock" some years ago. I thought it was too noisy-all clangs and bangs. That changed when I was at the University and I came across Evanescence and some others. I also made exceptions for some songs like Hoobastank's "The Reason". As I grew into Christianity, I never even knew that genre of music could find expression in Holy Minds...not until I started listening to Third Day...but even at that I thought it was a rare exception...not until I started paying attention to the group called Casting Crowns!!!

Being a lyrics person, these guys simply blow my mind all the time with simple poetry and deep words. Let me shut up here. The following words are from their track "What the World Needs"...judge for yourself:

What this world needs
Is not another one hit wonder with an axe to grind,
Another two bit politician peddlin` lies,Another three ring circus society.What this world needs Is not another sign wavin` super saint that's better than you,Another ear pleasin` candy man afraid of the truth,Another prophet in an Armani suit.What this world needs Is a Savior who will rescue,A Spirit who will lead,A Father who will love them in their time of need.A Savior who will rescue,A Spirit who will lead,A Father who will love,That's what this world needs.What this world needs Is for us to care more about the inside than the outside.Have we become so blind that we can't see?God's gotta change her heart before He changes her shirt.What this world needs Is for us to stop hiding behind our relevance.Blendin` in so well that people can't see the differenceAnd it's the difference that sets the world free.What this world needs Is a Savior who will rescue,A Spirit who will lead,A Father who will love them in their time of need.A Savior who will rescue,A Spirit who will lead,A Father who will love,That's what this world needs.(Spoken)People aren't confused by the gospel,They're confused by us.Jesus is the only way to God,But we are not the only way to Jesus.This world doesn't needMy tie, my hoodie,My denomination, or my translation of the Bible,They just need Jesus.We can be passionate about what we believe,But we can't strap ourselves to the gospels.Because we're slowing it downJesus is going to save the world,But maybe the best thing we can doIs just get out of the way.What this world needs Is a Savior who will rescue,A Spirit who will lead,A Father who will love them in their time of need.A Savior who will rescue,A Spirit who will lead,A Father who will love,That's what this world needs.Jesus is our Savior, That's what this world needsFather's arms around you, That's what this world needsThat's what this world needs

A Leader...

2011-08-26T16:40:00.000+01:00

Everyone who has acted as a leader knows that leadership is not for ordinary men...and by ordinary men I mean, men without real steel in their bones and minds nor tainted blood in their hearts...a leader can never rely on his natural abilities, otherwise he will fail...that is why some of us will not jump into the saddle too quickly, because we know that the work that we need to do on ourselves is far from adequate and we must continue to do the work until we can find no more space within us..and then we will venture to give out...

Leadership is all about giving...it's never about expecting to be appreciated...appreciation will come naturally when you have exhausted yourself...people will always criticise, naysayers will always exist...but a leader will always know who to listen to, what values to maintain and who to look to when he doesn't know the next step to take...

Making your Good the Best

2011-07-11T15:44:00.001+01:00

A lot of us..in fact, the whole lot of us, tend to just relax when we are having it good. We've been waiting for that 'breakthrough' and when we get it, we just want to relax and 'enjoy' the breakthrough. Well, our churches seem to have given a singular meaning to breakthroughs, so let me clarify. For me , a breakthrough is simply getting hold of anything you deeply desire. It's not just about material breakthroughs which involves getting a new car or getting the new job or house or winning that contract. For some of us, we have just been praying for inner peace, love, happiness etc-the intangible but powerful breakthroughs.

Well, my point is that whether our breakthroughs are tangible or intangible, there is that natural, 'human' tendency to relax after we've gotten the breakthrough and treat it as If it's supposed to take care of itself. There is the absolute need to work harder to sustain the breakthrough. The work starts then!

Lies

2011-07-10T12:14:00.000+01:00

We lie everyday. In some way or the other. We either believe in a lie told by someone else or we simply lie to ourselves.

We end up believing lies told by others but such lies can be easily gotten rid of by some truth. However, lies we tell our own selves are quite hard to overcome. Why? Because only truth can get rid of lies and it is quite hard to tell oneself the truth. The truth is more bitter when told to oneself, but telling yourself the truth really,actually, sets you free...

The Final Destination(Conclusion)

2011-07-08T12:12:00.002+01:00

Whilst many may put up arguments against biblical principles, I am fairly certain that very few will disagree with the Bible’s definition of love in 1Cor. 13:4-10:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

I have asked myself this question several times: “Is it possible for a human to meet all these requirements above? My answer to my question is simply that only God Almighty has met all these characteristics conveniently because it was the kind of Love He had towards us before He even formed Man. Before He formed Man, He pre-determined to love Man unconditionally and it has been so and will remain so.

How many times have we offended Him today alone? Yet He loves us without keeping record of wrongs. He’s been patient with us, He’s been kind towards us, He cannot envy us because we have nothing He can envy, He NEVER FAILS!

Now do you see why it is seemingly impossible to have this kind of love for one another? But wait! There is something that God has empowered us to be-like Him! So how come we can’t be like Him? Because the Devil hides just one fact from us-the fact that our Creator loves us and only wants our good! The Devil has redefined love and that is where he is misleading us. Are you still wondering why there seems to be so much strife, anger and divorce in the world? Whose definition of love do you believe in? There are many things that we can do, but because the Devil makes us believe that we cannot love, we accept ourselves as not being capable of loving.

So how exactly can we go about finding true love? God wants us to love one another. He wants us to find a partner with whom we would go on a life-long journey of finding true love. That is why He instituted that powerful thing called Marriage. It is only in marriage that we are truly tested in all the things mentioned in 1 Cor. 13:4-10. Marriage is the highest manifestation of Love that can exist between humans.

However, there is a prerequisite to marriage-God wants us to seek all the true qualities of Love in Him first before even attempting to love a fellow human being. So, the truth is that you must know how it feels to love God first before you should attempt to love another. When you love God you would be patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, you’ll honour others, you won’t be self-seeking, you won’t be easily angered, you will keep no record of wrongs, you will not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, you will always protect, trust, hope and persevere. In the end, you will never fail!

Have you noticed how there is always a ‘but’ attached to our “I love yous”? “ I love you but you betrayed me”, “ I love you but I fell in love with someone else”. Our “I love yous” even permit past tenses-“I loved you”. With God, it is never like that. He has never, and will never, stop loving you.

The real love we all ought to aspire to is Love Unconditional and that is only possible in God. That kind of love is always fresh, new every second of the day! True love leaves no pain, it is when we allow all kinds of emotions ruin our image of love that pain comes and we simply can’t trust love anymore. We shut the door of our hearts and when true love comes by, we are still too busy hurting to notice true love knocking.

Love Unconditional still lurks, waiting for us to acknowledge Him. Whatever we do on earth, He had loved us first and there is nothing we can do about that. We just need to reach out and touch God first before we reach out to touch others. If we reach out to touch others before we have encountered God, we are more likely to touch them with baggage of past experiences and hurt. But when we go to God first, He not only shows us how to love others the way He has loved us, He also heals us of all hurt in the same breath.

What God wants is for us to reach that point where we love others the way He loves us. He wants us to say “You did me wrong but I still love you” not “I love(d) you but you did this to me so…”. The ‘but’ is always in the middle but where you place the “I love you” is what matters! Do you place it after or before the ‘but’?

God wants Love to end everything, not that we start with love and end up with some other undesirable emotion like pain, fear, anger or hate. He knows that Love is a life-long journey that we have to learn in our relationships with others so He does not expect us to love immediately like we so often do. He expects us to love gradually-to come into love, not just to ‘fall in love’. Love is the final destination of life’s whole journey and He wants us to end up at it. He waits patiently for us to love Him because He knows that we ARE capable of loving Him. Let’s all arrive at Love. He waits for us at that end.

The Final Destination (1)

2011-07-07T17:17:00.001+01:00

Dictionary.com defines the word ‘love’ as “a feeling of intense desire and attraction toward a person with whom one is disposed to make a pair; the emotion of sex and romance”. That’s a shallow definition, If you ask me-and that is why “I love you” is probably the most abused phrase in any language. If it’s all about ‘desire’, ‘attraction’ being ‘disposed’, ‘sex’ or ‘romance’, then why do we wonder why there is no ‘love’ in the world? Or why do we wonder why we ‘fall out of love’ as quickly as we ‘fall in love’?

There is a wide range of emotions and all these words included in the definition of ‘love’ by Dictionary.com (which I’m sure was deduced from the world’s definition of the word) are just what they are-mere emotions. Emotions are, by their very nature, fickle and very likely to die or fade away, especially when subjected to intense trial. Which makes me wonder: Is love an emotion?

The phrase “love” is sure to come up in every individual’s life at one time or the other, either in thought or speech. Well, the truth is that, in whatever form it comes, the individual thinking or saying it may actually believe in those words at that moment. The other truth is that these other emotions mentioned above might easily be confused with the real Love since they are equally uncontrollable and tend to overwhelm.

What then is Love as I think it really is? To be honest, I do not have the answer you would like. Love seems to be beyond us humans. For the very few that feel really ‘loved’ at one time or the other, the experience is nothing but a glimpse of true love. Love Unconditional is the real deal. With us humans, love is almost always conditional....

to be continued...

Writers' Block??

2011-07-06T13:14:00.000+01:00

I have not posted anything since March so I must have been suffering from a writers' block, right? Nope!! I really have not run out of inspiration. I write in my head everyday. It just ends up on my phone most of the time. Or it stays somewhere in the cranium. No excuses but living in Lagos helps keep your writing inspirations in your head. Between

Traffic

Work

LASTMA office

Flood

and Power Outages

one or all of those phenomena ensure that the last thing on your mind would be writing. Sleep eludes, Love escapes. Anyone who can be romantic in the midst of all these natural disasters should have his/her bust erected in front of Fashola's office.

Somehow, I know I'll still find love and happiness in the midst of all these. My brain and body will get tired of trying too hard to please Mammon and seek true bliss...

Even the Bad Ones....

2011-03-29T09:04:00.000+01:00

I think this write-up is about my 'calling'. I could sum it up by saying this: all my life, I have tried to be 'bad' but at every point in time, there is always someone that cautions me against changing from my natural self. They tell me 'it doesn't fit you'.

If these angels were my 'fellow good ones', I would not have been bothered much. They were the very bad ones. They cautioned me against doing things they were doing that were 'bad'.Well, that made me conclude: even the bad ones want to see the good in me...so you figure out what my calling is...

Good, better, best...

2011-01-06T11:47:00.000+01:00

In primary school, we were made to recite these lines:

Good,Better,Best
May I never rest
Until my Good is Better
And my Better Best..

It's funny how one never makes sense of nursery rhymes until one is old enough to know their meanings. I never knew the deep meaning of these words until I'd stopped reciting them. They're words to live by.

Everyone is born good, I presume. Everyone's created with some measure of good-and the good in you include your many habits and foibles. Everyone's created different and everyone's created with flaws they have learnt to accept. But is it just enough to accept your weaknesses, your minor character failings as your good? God created us and loves us just the way we are, but I'm sure He wants us to strive to be better! Yorubas will say that you have been born but the burden is on you to go through rebirth! How true! The moment we own that mentality of "that's who i am, that's how I was created and I can't change it..", we sign up for eternal stagnation. You just never get better!

My relationship with people has taught me many things. Whilst it is important to accept others and know them for who they are, warts and all, it is important for the individual himself to (1) identify and acknowledge his flaws and (2) make conscious, purposeful efforts to eliminate or improve on their flaws. What do we get instead? The individuals yield to the flaws and forever fall victim to something that can be overcome.

Can I give practical examples? Have you come across people who often go into fits of rage? Or people who beat their partners? Or people who are known for one character flaw or the other? Or people who are known amongst their friends to have some peculiar but annoying trait?What do they tell you when you have the courage to ask them why they do what they do? "I don't know what came over me"; "It's just something I have to work on(they never do)";"He/She shouldn't be getting me angry";"It's not something I can control";"I can't change, that's me"-the worst of them all!

The fact that people close to you accept you for who you are, does not mean that other people will not be offended by your silly attitudes! Nor does it mean that your Maker does not want you to make better the good He gave you nor make best the better you've achieved!

Well, the truth is that everyone must never be satisfied with his or her present standing, character and otherwise. One must always strive to be better-but for the right reasons. One must never determine to be better so as to gain the approval of people, for example. You will end up killing yourself. One just needs to talk to oneself during those rare lucid moments and identify what needs to be changed in order to have inner peace. One must also, in doing that, be able to enquire of His Maker what needs to be changed and how that could be done.

So, what happens when you've put in some effort and you've become better? Do you relax and say "I've tried! After all, I'm human!". That's the natural tendency. Whatever happened to your better becoming best? I learn lessons everyday and I always strive to put those lessons into practical use. I do not succeed all the time and sometimes, pain or hurt follows. Why pain? I blame myself that I should have done better or tried harder. Although this may come off as some sort of negative thinking, considering the fact that I am but human and can't achieve everything I set my heart to do, this thinking helps me strive harder to do better in similar situations in the future.

So, what should I do? "I try my own best" and leave the rest to my Maker to make perfect..in the end, it will be said that I tried my possible human best. To you, I say that you should know what your best is and strive to reach it all the time...