To Love An Author-Friend.....

My birthday presents just keep rolling in. Today, The e-Book version of the 2011 Diary became available at my Publisher's Bookstore! God is just the best.  I just did about 7000 plus steps round my estate so I cannot shout too much but if I was any more excited, I would be popcorn. Please help me thank God for being so on point even when we are wondering how come our plans do not seem to be gel-ing, at the end of the day, we discover that his plans were far more superior than ours! Now, I am quite chuffed that my timing was off. This God sha! So that is my great news but how do we make it even better? Easy.

If you have a Kindle or any of those gadgets that allow you buy and download books, this would be a great time to buy my book.It is a very strong suggestion bordering on a soft command *smiling*. Cos you see I am an author and you are my friend ( you are, are you not?) so to show me some love you would run off now to Xlibris.com and by the 2011 Diary.  You know me, hate to stress people so voila le link right here:  

The e-Book Version of The Diary of a DNW in the Year 2011. 

Doing this would be a strong indicator of your love for this author-friend of yours. Lol! No, honestly, it pays us Authors better for you to buy our books direct from our publishers. The Amazons, Barnes and other online bookstores of this world, God bless them, are taking too huge a chunk of our royalties so have a heart, if you live abroad and can help it, please buy my books from Xlibris please. However, any which way you buy is fine o! A sale is a sale! Lol!

So that is that for now. I will continue to update you on this. Soft copies should be available online in the next couple of weeks but you know how these things work. Once I know, you will know too. I am really hoping to have copies available in Nigeria as soon as possible but once again, owo Olorun lo wa! And it's a good place for my business to be - In God's hands.

So what's it to be? You gonna show an author-friend some love or what? Yes? See, this is why I like you. Buy or simply share the news, either way, you are on point. Notin do you at all!

I thank you but God will reward you.

 

My Little White Dress

Would you walk around like this?

Do you know how when you wear white you are always conscious of where you sit, who comes near you or what you eat and how. I am not a fan of white to be honest cos I am a self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to wearing that colour.  Since I always think it will get stained. It does. Almost as soon as I step out of the house. As far as I see it, it is just plain hard keeping whites white (especially if you use brown face powder). They are stain magnets! One must be perpetually on guard!!!

 

I know this. You know this. So why on earth are we so thrown off when we face the same issues in the spiritual? Our righteousness in Christ is our little white dress or shirt (for the guys). And just as lipstick, brown powder, palm oil, ink, engine oil and every other enemy of white is lusting after your white apparel so is the enemy dying to put a nice smear of evil on the robe of righteousness God has bought for you. Maybe it's just me but it seems that I am more aggressive when it comes to keeping my little man-made fabric dress white than I am when it has to do with my divine blood-bought robe of right-standing. How come? 

Foolishness, that's how come. Or perhaps consistent memory loss cos it seems we consistently forget that we are more spirit beings and so focus a crazy amount of our time on things in the here and now instead of in the things of eternal value to our spirits. Anyway, whatever the reasons, for those who truly want to please God, something has got to give and give now. Dr. Okey Onuzo was in the house today and you know I love the guy so for me, it was one more birthday present from above. It was something he said that inspired this blog. He said that Christians ought to put on their righteousness in Christ like robes and be ever conscious of having them on so that anytime we see anything or anyone coming towards us with anything that would stain our robes, we would aggressively block it, resist it and/or flee from it! Yes, we must be just as meticulous about this as we are about preventing stains to our natural apparel.

As he spoke a picture formed in my head of all of us sitting down there in church. What if our spiritual little white dresses were visible? How many would be totally stain free? Would yours? Would mine? Thank God this is not possible cos I fear it will not be a pleasant revelation for any of us. But the good news is that we do not have to cringe at the thought. We can choose to really live in the power of God's Spirit like Dr. Onuzo said. We can let this power determine our choices and in the same vein, our behaviors. If we do our 'Jesus-robes' will remain pristine always.

 

Then people will not have to ask you what you believe. They will take a look at your little snow white dress and know WHO you believe. Now, is that not a fashion style secret we should all buy into? I know I shall.

Cos at the end of the day , when all has been said and done, it is the state of your little white dress that will determine whose Fashion show you will feature in - Mode a la Sheep or Goatsville. God will still love you but the truth is that in God's heaven, stains are so so last season. It is really that simple.

I am just saying.

44 Is Not Just A Number.

Yes, today is my birthday and I have no clue why 'they' say its inelegant or unladylike for a woman to reveal her age. I have never had a problem with it. Perhaps I am not elegant or worse, not a lady.  Lol! Anyway, I have had a brilliant day. More then brilliant. I had a day that I did not expect. True, I knew it was going to be my birthday and I figured I would be happy and grateful to be alive to see another one but I honestly did not expect it to be such a 'gift of a day'. 

God went out of his way to make it extra special in just the simplest yet most meaningful ways. The ways he knew would get my attention. He searched deep in my heart and saw what  I really, truly wanted and he gave it to me. No ribbons. No gift boxes. No fanfare. Not too much ariwo Yet, in the quietest moves, with the softest of words, the tenderest of gestures, I heard the loudest answers to my prayers. This God ehn? He is simply the best! PapaGod, I could never thank you enough. You just rock! And I know that what you are doing, you will perfect in Jesus name. Amen!

So I hit another double digit number today. 44. What a testimony that is. Last time was eleven years ago. It seems like such a tiny detail but I know a lot of people who saw 33 and are not here today. What am I talking about? I know people who were here this time last year but are no more. I try not to take anything for granted anymore. Nothing. I am not the same person I was this time last year. I have lived some life and I have died some deaths. Most importantly, I have grown up some more to that place where I can look you square in the eyes, no blinking, no dodging and tell you that God loves you with boundless love and the devil hates you with boundless hatred. It is that simple.

I look back on my last 365 days and these two truths could summarize my life more or less. If I sat you down and told you about it, you would shake your head in awe at how true those two statements are. So, this morning when I woke up to the first day of my own personal New Year, these were the words that were silently on my lips:

Wow! I'm 44! PapaGod, it's not just a number. It's evidence that you love me. Thank you so much!

To God alone be ALL the glory! 

 

 

What Are Your Values?

You know sometimes we really have no clue who we really are or what we truly stand for. We say one thing but then our behaviours tell a totally different story. I just facilitated a Leadership Workshop for a bunch of guys and I tell you, I LOVE to do this and my favourite bit is when you literally see the light bulb go on in a participant’s head as s/he falls upon some profound and/or shocking truth about themselves. It happens at different times during the course but never as much as it happens during the ‘Values’ session. People have no clue how ‘value-less’ they are until it smacks them right in the face!

As an aside, I had a truly gut wrenching experience yesterday coming into today. Sometimes this roller-coaster called Life feels like it is trying to throw you over the railings or something. Yet somehow just when your grip is slipping and you are so sure you are going to crash and burn, God swoops down and whisks you to safety! What an awesome God! He is just so on point.  You see this is why the Quality of my Connection with God aka my Faith/Spirituality is one of my top five personal values. My other values are Family, Serenity, Honesty and Helping Others. I have to hang my head in shame though as I admit that many times if you had only my behaviour to go by, you would not believe those were my values cos my actions thoroughly contradicted my espoused values *smh*  But we will get to that later.  

So tell me, what are your own top five personal values? Do you know them? Have you ever given this question much thought? Examine yourself and come up with your top five. Remember, your values are those standards you set by yourself to live by. They provide an internal reference for you about what is good, beneficial, important, useful, desirable, constructive, etc. Your values drive your conduct/behaviours. But do they really? Like I said, we shall look at that next blog around. For now just take some time to figure out what your personal values are. Start with ten and then give it some more thought and cut down to five. Err……May I hint you on something? If this is the first time you are doing this, it will be hard o!

P. S. Here are some examples of personal values (look it up on the web for a complete list): Achievement, Friendships, Physical Challenge, Advancement & Promotion, Growth, Pleasure, Adventure, Having a Family, Power& Authority, Affection, Helping other people, Privacy, Arts, Helping Society, Public Service, Challenging Problems, Honesty, Purity, Change & Variety, Independence, Quality of What I take part in, Close Relationships, Religion/Faith, Money, Freedom, Integrity, Influencing Others, Quality Relationships, Truth, etc. 

Why am I making us do this? Your values drive your choices. You are a product of your choices. I think it is important to know why we are becoming who we are becoming......... What values are driving us.........they may be right, they may be wrong.....or perhaps we are not living our values as we should.........perhaps our espoused values (the values we SAY are important to us)  are not our in-use values (the values we demonstrate by our behaviours and our actions). 

Selah!

Courage Is Fear...... and Two Other Quotes

This is a perfect day to keep it short and simple. I am missing my family. The lunch here was so horrible and being as I was starving, that really ticked me off. The Internet connection is haunted plus I forgot my power pack so need to conserve laptop power PLUS I just think the three quotes I am about to share so do not need any embellishment.

Courage is fear that has said its prayers. This first quote I heard from the weirdest of sources: Steve Tyler on the American Idol show. I tell you, not sure what shocked me more, hearing him say the words or how much the words hit home for me.

We judge ourselves by our intentions. People judge us by our behaivours. Being as I am still hungry I cannot remember where I read or heard this right now but is it not just the most profound of all truths? So be careful how you treat people, what you do to, for, against them. Your actions, as we all know speak louder than what you say.

And  my personal favourite, The beauty of life is doing what you really love to do and still make a difference. This made me smile inside cos it is exactly how I feel about my blogging and my books.  I know I love to do them and it is my hope that somehow, even the zaniest, most random of my blogs does something for someone, somewhere. Even if it just makes that person smile or simply 'take another stab at life'.

*exhaling* I am just terrible at not embellishing, am I not? Lol! I know, give me a keypad and I will give you an epistle! Oh well! Happy Sunday People, think on these quotes. I don't know exactly how but I think they will help us all overcome some stuff. Somehow......

 Have an awesome, God ordained week people!

P. S. I have updated the 'Russian Ballerina' blog with photos of the real 'Kasia' and 'Brian'. Check them out!  Lovely!

Ten Thousand Steps a Day, Here I Come!

I tell you the number freaked me out too but I was not to be daunted. I still signed up for the Global Corporate Challenge kicking off on the 24th of this month. And to be honest, since we got our GCC packs yesterday and I put on my pedometer, I have chillaxed somewhat. It really is not that hard to clock in ten thousand steps! I know, hard to believe but trust me, it is true.

I am a sedentary worker. I typically hate getting up from my desk. I hold on to pee for as long as I can. I eat at my desk. I would rather send a mail to get my work done than attend a meeting. It’s so horrible and unhealthy and I know it but I could not help it. Until now. Now, I am mega-motivated and being Team Captain just makes it even better. Lol! So, I have been practicing. I have been getting up every time I need to pee (which is more now since I have also started drinking loads more water at my desk. I mean, you can only hold a gallon of water inside you for so long!). I have been going over to talk to colleagues rather than IM-ing them or calling them and you will NOT believe how many steps I have racked up just by making those small changes. Two thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven! And that is just my average, moving a bit more day!

So imagine what will happen when I really begin to move. Imagine what will happen when I go out to buy my lunch rather then send someone. What would happen if I had the driver park farther away from Ebeano so I can walk a bit more to get there? What would happen when I add my walk round my estate (which is about 7000 steps on its own) to my count. You see, I told you, ten thousand steps is very doable and I am going to do it. Yes, I am going to step up to a healthier, fitter me (mind, body and soul)!

Even if you have not signed up for the GCC, how about you go out there and get your-self a pedometer (or two so your spouse or BFF can support you) and join my team, Team YES WE CAN!, on this ten thousand steps a day journey towards a better, more active life.

I don’t know about you but this body of mine deserves better than I have been giving it. It is not just a great disservice to me; it is disrespectful to God who not only gave me the body but lives in it. By the special grace of God, I plan to live long enough to carry one grandchild from each of my progeny and I do not plan to be leaning on a walking stick when that time comes.

So what do you think? Will you join us from the 24th of May to the 16th of September 2012?

Hope so! 

Bon weekend people!



Team YES WE CAN!
As TC, I am in charge of motivation!



Moms, Dads, I Take God Beg Una!

This is a DNW Public Service Announcement!

Please moms and dads living in Nigeria, I am confident that God did not bless you with those lovely children to have you one day watch them turn into human missiles as they fly through the windscreen of your car! What are you talking about DNW? How can that happen? It is not my portion? I reject it? No problem. Please reject it with all your might BUT while you are rejecting it please do me a favour – Make sure you strap your kids (especially the under fives) in before you move that car!

Haba! Kilode now? You guys go abroad now. Tell me daddy, when you are driving in the States for instance, would you dare have your young son sitting in the front with you talk less of standing playing with his toy plane on the dashboard of the car! Tell me, mommy, could you sit in the front of a car with your baby on your laps? Then why do you do this at home?

I just do not get it! I cannot tell you how many times I have had to intervene when I drive by a car in which I can see some young innocent child bouncing up and down joyfully on the back seat looking so cute and happy. But I am always aware that, in the blink of an eye, that image can change especially in this mad Lagos we live in where people drive like they are on some cheap and cheerful drug. All it needs is a sudden, sharp stop and off goes the human missile! How many times have you heard of people dying in crashes because they did not have their seat belts on? Countless I am sure. So why on earth can we not just do the right thing mommies and daddies, uncles and aunties, nanas and grandpas, in short anyone who transports children from point A to B in a vehicle? *bashing my head against a wall in frustration*

*exhaling* OK, true, we are all guilty but we can all choose to stop this now.

1. Keep your under-fives in the back and strapped in. I know, they will cry as one angry mom told a colleague of mine when he pulled her over. I say, let them cry. Last time I checked, you cannot die from crying. Give them fun stuff to do so they will want to sit still.

2. Stop driving and breast-feeding your baby mommy (I have seen it o!). Stop driving with your son in your lap daddy. Yes, I know it makes you look like a cool daddy and yes, he loves it. I assure you he will not love it if something goes madly wrong. Plus, trust me; then, you will not look so cool. 

      3. Warn your drivers and nannies, the car must not move until everyone is safely strapped in.   

           Where I work, the drivers are trained not to even start the engine until your seat belt is 

           buckled.

4. Don’t overload your car with other people’s children! If you are planning a kiddie’s outing, please plan to have adequate transport. Each child must be strapped in.

5. Make a fuss in your children’s schools. The school buses must have seat-belts and the driver must not move till all the kids are safely strapped in.

 Why am I shouting about this matter today? I just saw a truly horrible photo and no, I shall not share it here. Trust me, if you see it, you will be shouting too. But no need to shout, just change and please share this message with as many people as you can.

I take God beg una, our children need us grown-ups to begin making the right decisions about these little big things.

So that they may live to be our future.

P. S. Next PSA around, I am coming after all you wanna be suiciders/ involuntarily man-slaughterers a.k.a people who text while they drive!!!!!!!!!!