"Stop
acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The
past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed." Wayne Dyer
Happy new month!
This month
means so many things to so many people. To some it is their birthdays, wedding
anniversaries, milestones, Vals day inclusive; to all Nigerians, a chance to
redefine our future as a nation. But in all of these, one thing stands out, the
fact that this month is a gift to all of us as individuals.
Life is a
gift to us from God and what we make do with it is our gift back to God. The
presence of gifts in our lives demonstrate the beauty if life; the gift of
presents on the other hand teaches the warmth of friendship, the bond of love
and the attachment we share as humans living together on planet earth. This is
the main reason for the opening quote.
The Presence of
Gifts
The
Presence of Gifts; no matter the type, shape, size, form, weight, texture
or value, a gift is always cherished especially if it comes willingly from a
living heart and received by grateful soul. For many like me, the intention and
not even the gift itself is what pleases me.
The
presence of gifts helps us to better appreciate and value our possessions even
though many take it for granted owing at an abusing and chronic level of familiarity
and contempt. Right from my childhood days I have always been fascinated with
television shows. Perhaps after reading, watching TV then was my favourite
pastime. I still do watch TV shows.
The first
sport I fell in love with when I attained the age of reasoning was wrestling.
Yes World Wrestling Federation, WWF as it then was. Hawk Hogan, Andre the
Giant, Ultimate Warrior, Shawn Michaels; the mystic Undertaker, Kane, Mick
Foley and Paul Bier. Chai did forget to add Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock
and Triple H. If you played Smackdown on PlayStation one, then you can relate
to this rush of exhilaration passing through me now. These guys made it so
interesting and thanks to NTA, MiTV and MBI (I wonder where they are now) we
were able to follow the trend.
I loved
"King of the Ring" and SummerSlam and of course "Royal
Rumble". Even when Vince McMahon decided to make it a full-time show
business by renaming it World Wrestling Entertainment with new athletes such as
Goldberg, Bronk Lesner, Randy Orton, Shamus etc, I still find time to watch it.
Royal Rumble
is an intriguing brand of Wrestling where 30 athletes come into the ring after
every one minute or 90 seconds. To win, you must be the last man standing after
throwing others over the ropes. Life is like the Royal Rumble. It throws up at
different times and the level of success is not attributed to age. This is why
we have Millennials. It takes survival skills to remain relevant in the game.
What is
your game plan? No one goes into the Rumble without a plan. It's February 2nd,
and a lot is happening. People are being introduced to the ring (born), others
over the ropes (die), what is your strategy for survival?
The winner
of the Royal Rumble gets a shot at becoming the main challenger for the World
Title at WrestleMania. There are rewards for developing life skills and survival
strategies; one of them is participating in the Major Leagues! When you prepare
for what you pray for, you have no regrets when your requests are granted
because you just hit the ground running!
The Gift of a Presence:
A true
friend is one who stands by, no matter the weather. So many wars, conflicts and
conflagration rage on in our world today simply because we have become too
selfish with our presence not to talk of offering it as a gift to our
neighbour. Again, Charles Umeh’s words from yesterday’s piece comes handy “One of the many challenges we have in our generation is that we don't
do conversations anymore we simply do comments... You just look around to where
it has left us.” When we deviate from conversing,
we comment. And when we do that, we simply deny others the gift of our
presence.
In 2018,
no matter when you are introduced into the ring, have that game plan and stick
to it but with some room for modifications based on the unfolding
circumstances. Also, let your presence be a gift to others. Let their faces
light up, their hearts glow and their smile broaden when they see you come around.
And dearie, never be afraid to give the performance of a lifetime each time you
get into the ring!
40 days
after his birth, we celebrate his presentation at the temple. Jesus is a gift ever
present to, and for us; hence he’s referred to as omnipresent!
Lord Jesus. Present us with your blessings.
OjisiEmezie
0 comments