Bang! Bang!! Bang!!, goes the terrible ache in my head like a bass drum which forcefully ejected me from the idyllic arms of slumber like Lagos landlords. When I tried going back to my voyage on the waters of sleep again, the headache was so severe that lady sleep abandoned me at my moment of need. So I tried taking some painkillers to mute the ache but to no avail. Then it occurred to me to try also a form of alternative therapy, so i chose self hypnotism but that too wasn’t helpful.
Oh my head!
“Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shall glorify me”… (Ps 50:15.). Like a coal of fire, it limped into my consciousness and I bowed my head in prayer for this terrible headache had vowed to knock me senseless. It looked like there was a steel cloud above my head that the prayers gets to and bounce back at me. It then dawned on me that I had not being much of a “Son” to “HIM” lately. It’d really being a great while I spoke to “MY FATHER” that I wonder if HE still knows who I was. My busy schedule had placed a distance in our relationship and it pain’d me dearly.
So i bowed my head to pray
By this time the bang! Bang!! Bang!!! had accelerated like the electric drum beat of a rock band when out of the blues, it struck me like Zeus’s bolt and I said to myself “oh! Let me try listening to some soft tunes perhaps I can find respite in them”..
Anyway sha! Since it is yuletide, I restarted my laptop that had being a very close companion since my banishment from all familiar company began. “Where the heck is my media player icon gone?” With tears flowing down my eyes I searched for it frantically. Phew! “There it was” I sighed excited as I scrolled through my media library till I found the Gunter Kallmann Choir.
My Favorite Christmas Album
I remembered how many years it took me to get this CD. This had been our favorite Christmas carol album as a family while growing up back then in Ughelli a suburb of Delta State. I remembered how we used to play these tracks repeatedly every December with my parent’s old “Kenwood Turntable”. Never in my wildest thought did I imagine getting them on CD someday. Thanks to technology and many thanks to the internet who united me with my beloved Christmas band after a decade plus of estrangement.
Our Beloved Kenwood
So I clicked on the album and relaxed to allow my soul sup on the melodious tunes of Christmas. Lost in a pleasant reverie I realized to my amazement that the demons of headache are gradually being exorcised. Not by any medical potions or psychological therapy but by the soft whisper of the Gunter Kallmann Choir pouring into my soul like wild honey.
“And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him”…( 1Sam 16:23-17:1).These words came to bear upon me as I bowed to the power of music flowing from my headset like the serenade of nightingale at night. From the sofa where I laid, I was in the saddle of the euphoric melody of the music which evoked so many memories that I got lost in my pleasant reverie.
The noose of nostalgia being tightened round my neck, I drifted aloft into the far past when we begin the year with the thought of the past Christmas while fantasizing about the next. It was so beautiful then, as we were still pristine. Life had not exacted her toll on us then.
Christmas! Christmas!! What is it all about?
- What is it about the season that it provokes such happiness across the world?
- Why is it so special?
- What makes it different from every other holiday?
- What is it that fascinates us about the season?
- Is it because it comes up at the end of the year?
- Is it the snows or the harmattan?
- Is it because it is associated with Christ ?
- Is it the presents we receive or give?
- Is it the fire crackers or the special food we are treated to?
- They say it is the season of love! But can Valentine be compared to it?
- What is it about Christmas?
All these questions and more welled up in my mind as the atmosphere was charged by the unusual excitement contained in the music.
In my opinion, there is something mystical about the season, magical and deific as if God himself sanction the holiday. It’s not about the fact that it is the end of the year. If a date in September is picked universally as the birthday of Christ, it will still be as joyful as it is now.
Then I wonder about the ecstatic perfume that always adorns the air every Christmas. I remembered how we count down to Christmas with gusto. Like a mnemonic the music assisted me in the recall of the past as if my cerebrum had just being stimulated. With my eyes close and my soul caressed by the Christmas melody I wandered deeper and deeper into wonderland.
I remembered how happy we were at the end of the term when it is time to collect our report card. That usually marks the end of the year for us. Though it indicated sometimes how badly we performed during the just concluded academic session, we still end up happy cause Christmas is in the air.
I recalled how we save our pocket-money from October till December to be able to afford some present for loved ones. I remembered how we made our own version of fire crackers aka knockout, how we improvise by using the nut of a spoke from a motorcycle wheel then scratching off the black spot from several matchstick as our gunpowder, filled it into the nut and insert a tiny nail then smash it against the wall. It often produces same sound as firecrackers and it fills us with delight.
How we enjoyed the firecrackers
I remembered how elated we’d be when going shopping with Mom for our Christmas cloth and accessories.
I remembered also how the preparation for Christmas unfolds like the unfolding of a fresh bud of roses during spring. From the cleaning of the home to the making and hanging of Christmas decorations, the boughs of holly, the Jingle bells in the passage, the Christmas tree clothed with musical Christmas light that further contributes to the magic of Christmas. Playing with the Christmas chicken and taking turn to feed and watch over it till Christmas Eve when it will be slaughtered, then waiting impatiently for the big day after all preparation is done. What a wonderful experience back then.
Our adorable Christmas tree
I recalled the wonderful programs on TV during this season, the movies that makes us dream of “white Christmas”, rehearsing for the Sunday school drama that which is to be acted on Christmas eve, that special “silent night” that reminds us of how the shepherd kept watch with the angels for the arrival of baby Jesus.
I remembered also how in anticipation we ‘ll wait for “Santa Claus’s coming to town” with a bag of presents…ohhhhhhh How we loved presents!. Then we’ll go to bed very late, exhausted by the fun fair and deafen by the Boom! Boom!! Boom!!! of firecrackers on Christmas eve only to be the first in the house to wake up on Christmas day to the blissful aroma of Christmas..
Father Christmas...hahaha
Every track relieves a special memory from the beginning of the “twelve days of Christmas” till the birth of a new year. Like a magic ward, the songs cured my headache which no aspirin could medicate, a headache that originated from the depth of my stomach. An ache that had no physical causes except the pangs that originates from nostalgia.
“What is really the meaning of Christmas”? I asked for the umpteenth time.
Then I remember how we hurriedly took our baths on Christmas day, dressed in new attire with a colorful eyeglass and a cartoon wrist watch to complete the regalia we set forth to Church after a hearty meal of rice and chicken.
I remember how we will after Church service compile a list of all the uncles and aunties to be visited. Like a troupe of clowns we‘d then pay each one a visit. I recalled how it gladden our hearts to visit Diana our favorite aunt, we ‘d eat , snap pictures and play games with our cousins then return back with them so they can visit our homes too. Christmas! You were the only opportunity to visit with our extended family then.
Christmas with Aunt Diana
My wandering in dreamland like Alice was cut short when my phone rang. Ring! Ring!! Ring!!! It rang repeatedly till I gladly rose up to answer it. And there she was the sweet voice of my mother at the other side with news from home. “Drear Momma” I greeted feeling excited and elated… “How dearly I have missed you” then I realized how nostalgic I was. There and then, I made up my mind to spend the Christmas in the lovely arms of Momma.
(Watchout for Christmas…What a wonderful time!)
I.A.M 