If I Were An Artist May 10, 2013

If I were an artist,

I’d paint your visage in the sky,

Carve your sculpture on the mountains,

So the world without doubt could behold

How beautiful you are,

 

If I were a mason,

I will build you a castle in my heart,

To carry you with me,

Wherever I go there, also shall you be,

 

If I were a musician,

I will compose a symphony with your name

For the wind to whisper in faraway lands,

Then teach the birds to sing it

As their lullaby to the world ev’ry night

 

If I were a poet,

I’ll make you immortal,

By composing a panegyric

For you so generations unborn,

Can learn of you,

 

If I were an astrologer,

I’ll make it a life goal to search

The heavens for the brightest star,

Then call the star your name,

 

If I were an explorer,

I’ll explore all the secret places of your heart,

Discover the unknown dimension to you,

Unearth the unfound treasures

Within you for the world to see,

 

But I’m just a humble me,

Who’s effort is for the world to know

How much it is you meant to me

For I can’t be me,

If not you to make me, me.

What Is It That You Want? May 1, 2013

Dearest Joyce,

I was just meditating about how inspiring those moments we sat together to deliberate on deep philosophical truth were. This distance between our minds had robbed us of such precious moments but I know whenever I tune to the celestial channel and plug my little mind into the “Universal Mind” there will I find you. So had I done this day and I just want to communicate to you these truth that I’ve just unearthed.

What Is It That You Want?

A man went to Church one Sunday morning and he was asked by his pastor to write down a prayer request of the one singular thing that if God should grant, it will change his life forever. The man thought about for a long while then with a mischievous smile, he wrote down his request on the prayer request form and dropped it at the altar. A week later, he was knocked down by a hit and run driver and on getting to heaven, he vented his anger on the angel escorting him to paradise.

Praying Man

“Why do I have to die now before my time?” he asked with fierce anger

“You prayed for it” the angel replied.

“How could I have asked for death, when did I said such a prayer”

“That day at the anointing service at church, you wrote it down as your singular prayer request”

“That wasn’t what I asked for” the man replied.

“So what is it you asked for?”

“I asked for God to send someone to snatch me from my troublesome wife”

“And God answered by sending death to snatch you away from her”

“But that was not what I meant” the man lamented.

“You never specified,” concluded the angel.

Angels

Taking A Walk

 

Most times our circumstances overwhelm us that we ask for things, which are to our detriment. Emotions becloud reasoning, if God should answer all the prayers we prayed when we are under the influences of our emotions we will be done for. Other times we don’t know the consequences of the things we desire. To be free from challenges is to die before our time because sufferance is the badge of our race. As long as you are humans you will face challenges, as long as you are an inhabitant of earth you face winter, summer, and spring. Instead, a person should ask for strength, the grace to overcome his challenges.

Another case is that most times we don’t know what we need that is why we should ask the Holy Spirit to make request on our behalf.

Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa

Many years ago, I was opportune to be asked by a patriarch of evangelism and the father of Pentecostalism in Africa what he should do for me. It was a cool Friday morning after morning service at the Church of God Mission Benin city. The sun had just woken up from her bed and her radiant smile beams all over the sky. I stood at the car park waiting for a friend who would give me a ride home when the late arch Bishop Benson Idahosa sent someone to call me.

“Young man, I sent for you because I felt you’re passing through a phase and God want to assure you He is with you,” he had said to me. With tears beaming in my little brown eyes, I looked up to him and said

“Papa, it is true that I am in a dire strait”

“Do not cry my son,” he said reassuringly while giving me a comforting pat on the back.

“What can I do for you?” he finally asked as the pastors with him and security details wondered who I was and what it is we were discussing. That question I couldn’t answer and that incident was forever tattooed on my conscious mind.

 In retrospect, I could have asked for a double potion of his anointing like Elisha asked and he would have granted it to me. I would have asked for his blessings or any material thing and he would have given it to me but I was speechless and I asked for nothing.

Now I ask you again this million-dollar question “What is it that you want?”

The reason why most of us failed is not that we lacked talents or opportunities but that we waste our bullets shooting at wrong targets.

I discovered my purpose as I surrounded myself with role models, they began to influence my thoughts, and a dream was born. Through their guidance, I learned I have to unite my purpose and my dreams together. I did and took a step further, I became one with my dreams and purpose and before my very eyes, my life transformed, and I became a wonder even to myself. A life without purpose is a ship without destination no wind is favorable. Many have dreams but no purpose, some purpose without dream. One is useless without the other. A purpose is a life journey while dreams are the destination. Your purpose should be to fulfill your dream. When you discover your purpose and match it with the dream you’ve crafted for yourself you find happiness and fulfillment from life. Purpose and dreams are the stars and moon; they illuminate your life as they do a dark night. The distinction between those who succeed and happy and those who failed and are unhappy is that they discovered their purpose and harmonize it with their dreams then expend all their talents and abilities chasing after it, they have a set target, aimed and shot with the bullets they had . When your purpose is in variance with your dreams, life begins to stink for you; nothing will work irrespective of how smart or hard you struggle. Everything will begin to fall apart and fulfillment will exceed your reach. Then you’ll say, “but I did all the experts recommended” yes you may but one single fact is left out and that single fact is the pillar that holds the building. Review your purpose and dreams, make them harmonize and your hectic work won’t be a work again but a fun filled adventure. Your purpose should be to get to your destination (dream). Where purpose is unknown, abuse is inevitable. Many are abusing themselves today, misusing their talents in the wrong field. Just imagine a farmer that sows rice seed in the desert, there is no amount of manure or labor that will make the seeds sprout but when you sow rice seeds in a swamp, you don’t need to labor anymore. Many people are clones of their own parents, an extension of their parents, someone to fulfill their unfulfilled dreams or wishes. Many have been conditioned to live the lives of others but their own. When you live another’s dream who will then live us? Your son or daughter perhaps, Steve Jobs once said while addressing the graduands Stanford some day, “do not spend your life living another man’s life” spend your life living yours. Everybody is created with a unique purpose. Discover it and get the courage to walk that path. It is only in that path that your success and happiness lies. Imagine if Mohamed Ali was to be a musician and Michael Jackson was to be a boxer and Jordan a doctor, won’t they be a disaster? All of these men are talented just as you are, no doubt about that but when that talent is applied on the wrong field as you’re probably doing right now success, fulfillment and happiness will elude them.

Dr. Myles Munroe

Dr Myles Munroe once said that the cemetery is the richest place on earth because buried in those tombs are unfulfilled dreams and abused purpose. People that never knew what they wanted from life and ended up chasing the wrong purpose while their personal dream lay covered with weeds within them.

(This part is of this article is cullied from the book “Principled Driven Life” by Avid).

I asked again as I did before, “what is it you want?”

If God should ask, you from heaven with his majestic voice, “my child, I’ve seen your tears. What is it that you want” what are we gonna ask for? If a genie should offer to grant us one wish what is it gonna be? This was a blank check presented to Solomon. We could ask for material blessing or a spiritual blessing or like the philosopher ask for wisdom.

Genie

 

If i should have one wish I’ll ask for wisdom because with wisdom, I will achieve whatever it is I desire. My dreams and aspirations will just be a day away. But if I have one wish, I’d ask for you because there is no life for me if it is not with you. In your arms lie everything I desire and the fulfillment of my dream. I’ll wish for you to be my Juliet.

 

 

 

If You Were My Romeo April 29, 2013

If you were my Romeo,

My heart ‘d race in fervent pace,

When your name I hear without your face,

Your words me they’ll brace,

When life’s battles I face,

 

Chills will sail up my spine,

Always for you I’ll pine,

My heart will be thine,

For your absence will made it die,

 

To you I’d surrender my soul,

In each other’s arms our time we’d plow,

Unknowingly this passion we’ll sow

Then it’ll decline to burn slow

 

If you were my Romeo,

I’ll sleep awake every night,

Wishing if you could be my knight,

So for you my troth I could plight,

 

We’ll sail away into the rays,

Love will make our ways,

Together we shall run away,

So they don’t keep us at bay,

 

If you were my Romeo,

I’ll come away with you,

Even to the ends of the earth,

B’cos this love comes but once,

Such that I have for thee.

Mortal Quest April 26, 2013

Wandering in this wilderness that us deplore,

The Strength Of A Woman April 20, 2013

A great mystery surrounds these female specie of God’s creatures. I can’t fully comprehend their enigmatic sublimity and mental alacrity. They’re meticulously crafted to perfection, endowed with a mind that baffles the wisest of sage. Insulated against all form of stress and emotional tumult, they can survive the harshest of tempest and cruelty that will break a man in a second. The traumas and abuses women cope perfectly with without going south will send any man flying over the cuckoo’s nest. In secrecy, God created them when the whole universe was asleep so that no other creature can gain intel. on their makeup.

The Praying Woman

The world is so scared of them that he had them subjugated all because he is scared of a fair contest. Society has sold them a lie and many of them believed it that they’re “second class citizens”. They may be the “weaker sex” physically but outside the ring, they can defect a champion not with heavy bout but with a tender caresses. The power they wield over the world is remarkable; none can escape its grasp. They can transform a man from a coward who cowed in fear to a dynamo. They can challenge his creativity and inspire him to be the best he can. They can make or break any man any time. No wonder Churchill said, “Behind every great man is a woman” we owe every advancement in the world to them; behind every great invention is a woman who serve as a Muse to the inventor.

The Strength Of The Woman Is On Her Knees

With their beauty, they charm our senses and conquer our hearts with their brain they inspire and challenge us to aim beyond the horizon. Beauty and brain what a deadly combination. If only they’re aware of their powers over the world, they’ll be unconquerable.

They can cure all manner of insanity and tame any beast. They’re the best Shrink and the buttress we all need, if you have them as the angels watching over you, you’ll become unstoppable. Some realized this mystery, used it and became great, others ignores it to their peril. They come in different forms, shapes, and sizes. To that great magnanimous woman who brought me forth, and the stupendous sisters who shares my DNA, to that unique and amazing woman who taught me to look inward and beyond what the natural eyes can see and that special angel who continually keeps a vigil over me, and lights a candles to heaven on my behalf. To the bevy of Duchesses, Countesses, and Courtesans who adopted this crazy boy as a brother and the goddess in whose shrine I worship, I know it is written thou shall not worship any other gods but you’re a goddess too magnificent to ignore and the good book never said anything about goddesses.

 

The Beauty Of Motherhood

To all the amazing women in my life, you’ve all being incredible and exceptional, I’m blessed to have you gals. I salute you all.…

an excerpt from the book “The Strength of a Woman, Unveiling The Mystery of The Feminie God” by Avid

The Power of Imagination December 12, 2011

Imagination is the ability to create a mental movie of something that is not perceived through the senses. It is the ability of the mind to build mental scenes, objects or events that do not exist, are not present or have happened in the past. Memory is actually a manifestation of imagination. Everyone possesses some imagination ability. In some it may be highly developed and in others it may manifest in a weaker form. It manifests in various degrees in various people.

Imagination makes it possible to experience a whole world inside the mind. It gives the ability to look at any situation from a different point of view, and enables one to mentally explore the past and the future.

 

It manifests in various forms, one of which is daydreaming. Though too much idle daydreaming may make one impractical, some daydreaming, when not being engaged in something that requires attention provides some temporary happiness, calmness and relief from stress.

 

In your imagination you can travel anywhere in the speed of light without any obstacles. It can make you feel free, though temporarily, and only in the mind, from tasks, difficulties and unpleasant circumstances.

 

Imagination is not limited only to seeing pictures in the mind. It includes all the five senses and the feelings. One can imagine a sound, taste, smell, a physical sensation or a feeling or emotion. For some people it is easier to see mental pictures, others find it easier to imagine a feeling, and some are more comfortable imagining the sensation of one of the five senses. Training of the imagination gives the ability to combine all the senses.

 

A developed and strong imagination does not make you a daydreamer and impractical. On the contrary, it strengthens your creative abilities, and is a great tool for recreating and remodeling your world and life.

 

This is a great power that can change your whole life. It is used extensively in magic, creative visualization and affirmations. It is the creator of circumstances and events. When you know how to work with it, you can make your hearts’ desires come true.

 

Imagination has a great role and value in each one’s life. It is much more than just idle daydreaming. We all use it, whether consciously or unconsciously, in most of our daily affairs. We use our imagination whenever we plan a party, a trip, our work or a meeting. We use it when we describe an event, explain how to arrive to a certain street, write, tell a story or bake a cake.

 

Imagination is a creative power that is necessary for inventing an instrument, designing a dress or a building, painting a picture or writing a book. The creative power of imagination has an important role in the achievement of success in any field. What we imagine with faith and feelings comes into being. It is the power beyond creative visualization, positive thinking and affirmations. Every scientific and technological invention of today is as a result of the imagination of the inventor. Walt Disney saw Disneyland before the plan was drawn by the draughtsman, Henry Ford saw Model T  with his minds eye before a single fabrication was done, The Wright Brothers saw humans flying before they carried out their experiments… Imagination is a great tool in the hands of humans and only a few use this potent weapon to wrought an extra – ordinary life out of ordinary life.

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Visualizing an object or a situation, and repeating often this mental image, attracts the object or situation into our lives. This opens for us new, vast and fascinating opportunities. This is a law of nature which can’t be refuted. “Whatever we consistently think about we are bound to experience”

This means that we should think only in a positive manner about our desires, otherwise we may create and attract into our lives events, situations and people that we don’t really want. This is actually what most of us do, because we don’t use the power of imagination correctly.

If you do not recognize the importance of the power of the imagination, and let it run riot, your life may not be as happy and successful as you would have wanted it to be.

Lack of understanding of the power of the imagination is responsible for the suffering, incompetence, difficulties, failures and unhappiness people experience. For some reason, most people are inclined to think in a negative way. They do not expect success. They expect the worst, and when they fail, they believe that fate is against them. This attitude can be changed, and then life will improve accordingly.

Understanding how to use your imagination correctly, and putting this knowledge into practice, for your own and others’ benefit, will put you on the golden path to success, satisfaction and happiness.

See you at the top.

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Tools ‹ Odyssey: The Philosophical Quest For The Mysterious — WordPress January 1, 2011

Tools ‹ Odyssey: The Philosophical Quest For The Mysterious — WordPress.

Nostalgia! December 13, 2010

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!)

Dearest Joyce December 10, 2010

It has being a while we bridge these vast ocean of nothingness that separates our minds. It’s being a long time we sat at meat to ponder about the events of life and the ways of the scholars. Then I remembered the idle chatter that occurred some days past between me and some acquaintance which I seize the opportunity to report to you my Beloved.

They criticized the philosophy and the principled that I’ve courted over the years. They scorned the tenets that fashioned my lifestyle. In their opinion, life is a waste if one doesn’t get the opportunity to sow his royal oats in his favorite field. Then I asked them, which of the above is a waste? Is it the inability to sow your royal oats or not spending precious time meditating in your favorite fields? But none of them could give me an answer even after much thought…. They concluded that a man’s