smile

"The day began with dismal doubt

A stubborn thing to put to rout;

But all my worries flew away

When someone smiled at me today."

                    author unknown

When I was a little girl, my mum gave me this tiny litttle white book with the words, "Smile" written on the cover. It was a Helen Exley Giftbook and I cherished it so much that that little book became so worn out. But the words written inside are still intact, and frankly, to me that's all that matters.

I took that book everywhere with me and read it so many times that I could nearly recite it whole from cover to cover. Unknown to me then, That would be my foundation class in what was a growing fascination in poetry.

Every single line of that book is so dear to my heart, but the above lines from an unkown author is by far my favourite. And after nearly ten years, I can still remember the words.

I think I loved this book because for one, it came into my life at a time I was at the very end of hopelessness. It had been a gift to my mother and she had in turn given it to me, with the most beautiful inscription on the front page which read, "Dear Ronke, this is to put a smile on your pretty face - with love - mummy."

To date, it's my most cherished book and I would love to share it with all of you. It got me through the most darkest of times and I hope it does the same for you.

If you want to find out where you can get it, check out www.helenexleygiftbooks.com .

LESSONS LEARNED...four hours to the end

This year was hard for me in a lot of ways. But as hard as it was, I also feel like I've grown. I've learnt a great deal: 

I've learnt how to love and be loved (believe me, it's not as easy as it sounds and frankly I'm still working on it). It's like you feel that you don't deserve the good things of life that you have, but here's the shocker: YOU DO! You do deserve to be happy. You do deserve to be loved. And you do deserve the Grace of God that keeps you alive.
So I've also learnt to love myself and to know that loving myself means doing things that are beneficial to my life, not just permitted. After all, the Bible says, "some things are permissible but not all things are beneficial". So just because smoking is okay doesn't mean I should indulge in it and kill my lungs. (I mean, just saying).
I've also learnt to love and respect people who may be different from me. I've learnt to accept them as they are without judging them, even though I may not accept what they are doing. It's not my place to serve as their judge.
I've learnt to step out of my status quo and prove that I can do whatever I set my heart to do. Our destiny isn't set out in stone. We can change it. Either for good or bad. (Although I reccommend good)
I've learnt that although love could be so tarnished and faded and sometimes it may look like it's not there, at the darkest hour just before dawn, it begins to brighten and change into something new and beautiful and fill our hearts with so much light and life.
I've learnt that life is too short to waste it focused on the bad things and thinking of ways to hurt others or how others have hurt us. Instead, it should be spent creating memories that we can live on and that can live on after us, long after we're gone.
I've learnt to never feel like people owe me something because happiness is only achieved by looking at what you can do for others and not what can be done for you. It's a simple principle of selfless giving, which has existed for a long time, you know? God gave his only son, remember? We didn't even ask, he just did.

I've learnt a lot more this year as I'm sure we all have too. So as we get our wishes and aspirations for the new year ready, let's not forget the lessons learned as this year rolls by and in the new year to come let's always learn to take count of the little things in life that matter and the little lessons that we have learned.
Till then however... Bye!! Ciao!! Au revoir!! Adios!! Arivaderci!! Sayonara!! And see ya in the year 2012!....

MAKING PLANS

Ever notice that things never quite work out as we plan them to? We make plans, New Year resolutions and the like but most times end up spending more time making them than actually doing them.
Bottom Line: Things never work out as we plan. Planning...Scheming... Preparing what we want our lives to be like NEVER WORKS!!!
For instance, I had "planned" to put up a blog post on Christmas day. I had the entire article written and ready to go. Care to take a guess as to what happened? Yep, the "plan" flunked.
So my advice? Quit planning!! Things only work out how they were supposed to in the first place anyway. So what's the use wasting our time bothering?
And if things don't work out as you plan? Make a new one!
But hey, what do I know? I may just as well be rambling! But you can't deny the fact that I may have a point.
Anywho, taking my own advice to make a new plan, this is the piece that I "planned" to post here on Christmas Day. Hope you like!!(Let me know what went wrong if you don't)

A MESSAGE FOR CHRISTMAS
This is a message for you this Christmas,
  so share it with all your family and friends.
Once, a little boy had nothing to live on,
 except a threadbare jacket and a few pieces of bread.
He met a homeless man on his way one day,
 with nothing but sores on his arms, feet and face.
He stopped and sat with him and said,
 "Hey mister! It's Christmas, would you like to share my bread?


In all honesty, this little boy knew not nor cared,
 where his next meal would come from or where he would lay his head.
All he knew was what he had done:
 It was Christmas, he had food but this old man had none.
So together they sat in the cold on this fine day,
 celebrating the birth of our Lord in their own way.


Thus, let this be an example to each and every one of us,
 that in the midst of our bounty there are some who have none.
And let it be a reminder to us for all time:
that the reason for the season is giving,
 even if all you have is a dime.

TO MY FIRST 'COMMENTER'!! ... if that's even a word.

Hey y'all!! I'm in a super-duper, over-excited, happy, mood today! You know why? 'cause I just got my very first comment!! Yay!!!
I checked my email today and saw that I had a comment from someone named "Anonymous". I know this is strange but so many things have been happening in my life since I've started counting down and taking note of the occurences in my life and today more than ever, I would like to take count.
So today being the last day of the countdown, I would like to thank my very first 'commenter' (forgive my spelling if it's wrong).
I know 'Anonymous' is no one's name and it's just someone who didn't want his name to be published on my blog. But to 'Anonymous', whoever you are, I just want to say a big THANK YOU! You have no idea how much you've made my day. Thank you, and to all of you who have read or read my blog....THANK YOU!!

Taking count of everyday of your life helps you to appreciate the most important little things that happen...it helps you make the big things count!!

IT'S BEEN A WHILE...

So, it's been a while. A LOT has happened, but I won't bore you with the boring details of my life. All I'll say is; it's been good. I'm almost done with my IT training with Radio Nigeria (I have just one more week left) and I may likely have a play acted on the radio, so fingers crossed!
So I wrote two poems for a competition of sorts. I'm going to post it here. Hope you like it!!

SEASONS
The Summer sun shines warm and bright
The winter snow makes all things white
In Autumn (or Fall- as it could be called)
The leaves dry up and begin to drop
But Spring makes it all come alive again
As another year begins, another season to grain.

The Second doesn't really have a title. Enjoy!!

You are one in a million and a million in one
You are the healing balm to my aching heart
Your presence is as the sun
Giving light and giving life